


Vines in the Sun

by theearlymorningmist



Series: Daughter of Dionysus [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Acceptance, Angst, Book Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Chiron - Freeform, Daughter of Dionysus, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Mr. D is actually not that bad of a dad, Post-Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Son of Apollo, im a simp for Ariadne, post titan war but heroes of olympus isnt a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theearlymorningmist/pseuds/theearlymorningmist
Summary: Adara, a daughter of Dionysus, has the power to incite madness. Her struggle to control her powers have made her an outcast at camp until a new Apollo-camper, Theo, decides to make it his mission to befriend her.
Series: Daughter of Dionysus [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083542
Comments: 9
Kudos: 28





	1. Honey-Cake and Hopes For Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oakinthesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oakinthesky/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **All 12 chapters are already written**

This is going to make me sound really bitter, but I was counting down the minutes until the summer campers left for season. It’s not that I didn’t like the other kids, or that I didn’t understand their boisterous goodbye celebrations, but I was absolutely swamped with paperwork. Usually my dyslexia didn’t cause me too many problems, it only really acted up with I was tired or irritated- both of which I was feeling right now. You see, my main job here at Camp Half Blood was all the boring administration stuff that our _delightful_ Camp Director, Mr. D (I really want to emphasize the sarcasm there), couldn’t bother to do himself. Oh, and I should also mention that Mr. D, or rather – Lord of Wine, theatre, and ritual madness, _Dionysus_ , is my godly parent which is how I got stuck with this job.

But more about that later, right now I had to process every single camper’s notice of choice. It was very important that the cleaning harpies knew which campers were staying and which were leaving to live in the real world again until next summer. Mix ups could lead to a nasty case of camper mutilation at the hands of hungry harpies. On top of that, there was a back log of orders for the ‘Delphi Strawberry Service’, which funded most camp activities. It was already hard enough getting the words to stay on the page without the added interruption of people hollering as they tossed each other in the lake or dashed around the big house participating in games of tag.

With a frustrated groan I shoved the unmarked notices away and starred blankly out the window hoping to clear my head for a moment. I noticed my brother, or rather – half brother, Pollux, tending to the strawberry fields. Having inherited our Father’s penchant for growing vine fruits, he made sure there was always enough strawberries growing. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but Fruit tended to be the only matters which my brother and I discussed. I told him how many orders were needed, he made sure the strawberry fields had them. Aside from that, we preferred to just stay out of each other’s way.

I wasn’t quite sure why we didn’t get along better. I knew that part of the blame lied in me and my own issues with family (a story for another time), but there was distance on his side too. As you might have guessed from his name, Pollux used to have another brother, a real brother, named Castor. But he died in the war against the Titans before I’d even come to camp. Since then, he didn’t seem keen on any other siblings. That was fine with me.

Stretching out my stiff limbs, I forced myself to delve back into the notices. Afterall, it was the last night of camp, so they needed to get finished today no matter what. The only thing I was looking forward to less than getting through all this paperwork was what would come after. There was a special end of summer feast and party to send the summer campers off. I really didn’t like parties… Mainly because I wasn’t allowed to participate.

Remember what I said about my dad being the god of ritual madness? Back in the old days, before he was cursed to be Camp Director, Dionysus would lead groups of women into the wild to basically party for days on end, and everyone would go into this frenzied state of ‘divine madness’ as they called it. They were probably just all drunk if you asked me- or at least, that’s what I used to think before I understood that instead of inheriting the fun ability to grow all vine fruits, I got stuck with the ability to incite madness. To make it simple, on a normal day if I spent too long among other people, I could drive them temporarily insane because I hadn’t quite figured out how to control my powers yet. I was usually fine one on one, it was really just larger gatherings that brought out the madness, since all parties invoked the spirit of Dionysus. So basically, me and a giant camp-wide party would not mix well.

I had asked Chiron once why previous children of Dionysus hadn’t inherited this particular attribute, and he had thought over the answer carefully before suggesting that it could possibly be because of my gender. At the risk of offending me or Mr. D, Chiron carefully explained that historically, Dionysus’ few half-blood children had all been male, and I was the first girl he could remember being born. This didn’t exactly make me feel any better about my situation. We haven’t discussed the matter since, and I get the feeling it’s because Chiron was told not to…

Getting back to the matter at hand, it was just my luck that the moment I started wishing the paperwork would make time go by slower, it was over faster than you could say ‘Nyx’. It was now evening, and the dinner horn blew, letting all the campers know it was time for the feast. I left the office in the big house, catching up with my brother to trail to the dining pavilion along with everyone else. I walked behind him since, despite there only being two of us, he was technically the ‘cabin leader’. This way it was also easier to avoid awkward small talk.

The dining hall was the only place where I could safely spend a longer period of time in a large group, since, against his will, Mr. D was present and he could easily disperse any wave of insanity I accidentally unleashed. While I was grateful that my father did this so I could at least eat meals like a normal camper, it didn’t exactly make things less awkward at the table with just my father, brother and me.

Mr. D and Pollux got along fine. They had a kind of silent understanding between them. They had similar temperaments when Mr. D wasn’t in a bad mood (which wasn’t very often). They even played pinochle together sometimes, and I tried not to be offended that I had never been invited.

Once our plates were filled with food, I followed Pollux to the fire to pay tribute. I imagine paying tribute was a lot less awkward for other campers than it was for my brother and I, since our godly parent was sitting a few feet away watching us pay reverence to him while everyone else could just vaguely imagine their parents were somewhere receiving the offering. I watched Pollux scrape some of his food into the fire, and I swore I just barely saw him murmur the name ‘Castor’. I didn’t question him about it.

I hesitated before scraping part of my own meal in, unsure what to say. Suddenly aware of the line forming behind me, I mumbled a general ‘to the gods’, hoping I hadn’t offended Mr. D by doing so. Glancing back afterwards, however, I could tell he didn’t really care. He continued sipping his diet coke passively. I rejoined the table.

“I finished sorting through everyone’s notices.” I piped up, while poking at some crispy and golden looking potatoes.

Mr. D raised a single ambivalent eyebrow. “Pass it along to the cleaning harpies in the morning,” he replied, taking another sip of the fizzy beverage. Pollux cast me a sidelong glance. If he felt pity for the clipped response I got, he didn’t show it.

I felt a flutter of contempt rise in my chest and, for a moment, the laughter in the room seemed to grow louder and more chaotic. Noticing the change, Mr. D cleared his throat, and things settled to an appropriate level of mirth again. His gaze flickered from Chiron to me and back again briefly, and I knew that the momentary outburst had been my fault. My stomach turned. I was no longer hungry, and suddenly all I wanted was to be away from the crowds.

I stood abruptly. “Well, I’ve got strawberry orders to deal with. I’ll make sure to stay away from the festivities tonight.” I smiled, like it didn’t bother me. This time I was sure Pollux was pitying me.

“Adara—” Chiron called as I passed by, but I cut him off with a wave and a smile.

As I made my way back to the big house, distracted by my own racing thoughts, I bumped right into someone who had been running the opposite way. In the dark I could only really make out the outline of some messy brown hair and shining blue eyes.

“I’m sorry!” I apologized, as we both caught our balance again.

“Oh man, did I miss the feast? It would have been my first end of summer feast too!” He asked, barely acknowledging the head on collision that had just occurred. “I got stuck putting all the canoes away!” The boy huffed, but he didn’t really seem all that annoyed.

“Uhh, no, it just started. I’m just not hungry,” I explained, before side stepping the boy to continue on my way.

“Hey, wait!” he called after me. “You’re Mr. D’s kid, right?” he asked, causing my entire body to tense up. I immediately thought about all the awful rumours that newer campers like him must be told about me.

I tried not to make eye contact with the kid when I answered. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to go insane because you touched me.” I replied, shortly, eager to just be on my way already.

“Woah, I wasn’t ganna ask that.” The boy defended himself, jogging after me. “I was just going to introduce myself. I’m Theo- from the Apollo cabin. I don’t really know many year rounders, so pretty much all my friends are leaving tomorrow.”

I felt my throat burn from the embarrassment of what I had just said. “Um…sorry.” I murmured. “Camp can be pretty fun when there are less people here. I’m sure you’ll meet some new friends.” I assured him.

There was a flicker of disappointment in the boy’s excited eyes, but he smiled anyways. “Right… well, enjoy the party! Maybe I’ll see you around.”

I nodded politely. “Enjoy yourself.” I responded, watching the boy run towards the dining pavilion, and disappear in the crowd. I swallowed heavily, feeling too overwhelmed with self pity and frustration to even think about paperwork. Turning on my heels I headed to my cabin instead and laid down on my bed. Since there was just the two of us, Pollux took one side of the room and I took the other.

As I laid in the dark, I tried to convince myself that it didn’t matter I couldn’t participate in the camp fire festivities, and that things would be better once camp numbers went down tomorrow and I could do more than just hide in the big house all day. It didn’t make me feel any less like an outsider or a drag.

A few hours later, drifting between sleep and wake, I heard the cabin door open and Pollux’s footsteps heading to his usual bed. “Did you have fun?” I asked, in a quiet voice.

I could sense hesitation before Pollux finally replied. “Yeah, the fireworks were cool.”

I didn’t want him to think I was judging him for going to the party when I couldn’t. “Glad you had fun.” I told him, genuinely meaning it. There was no need for my brother to be a loner just because I was. “Night.” I added, rolling over and feigning sleep.

To my surprise, I heard Pollux’s footsteps make their way over to the side of the cabin where he pulled out a honey-cake, my favourite, which he had taken from the feast. He silently placed it on the side table by my head. “Night, Adara.” he said, before quietly heading back to his side of the cabin.

A small smile found its way onto my face. Things would be better tomorrow- I was sure of it.


	2. An Apollo Kid Asks Me About Canoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note on ages: Adara and Theo are both 16.

I woke up just before dawn to an unseasonably chilly room. Pulling the covers tighter around myself I tried to mentally prepare for the day. There was going to be a lot of commotion with kids being picked up by their non-godly parents or being driven by Argus to the bus station. I was going to have to try to remain calm and in control to avoid any incidents.

Briefly, I had worked with Chiron and Mr. D on trying to control my powers. When I say ‘with Chiron and Mr. D’ I mean Chiron did all the talking while Mr. D sat in a chair in the corner looking disgruntled and waiting to clean up any messes I might make. As a centaur, Chiron seemed to be unaffected by my powers, the same went for the satyrs. While practicing, Chiron had told me to visualize any negative feelings I experienced like a mist (no not The Mist, capital T and M). If I ever felt like the mist was getting too big or spreading too far, I should focus on drawing it back to myself and taking deep breaths until it dissipated like the morning fog.

“Like the morning fog.” I repeated to myself quietly, as I worked up the will to sit up. Since it was a colder day I slipped on some jeans and an oversized hoodie with the Delphi Strawberry Service’s logo on the back. The sweater had my name on the arm and underneath it said ‘Manager’. It had been a gift from Chiron on my last birthday to thank me for all my help with the orders. I wondered if Pollux had one too, or if it was just me. Either way, it was comfy and warm as I headed out.

The ground was covered in a layer of dew and loose grass stuck to my running shoes as I made my way down to the dock to watch the horizon. I liked how quiet and peaceful camp was in the mornings. I could walk around the grounds without feeling out of place.

After a few moments of admiring the scenery, I stuck my hands into the hoodie pockets to keep them warm and headed to the big house. I tried to keep my interaction with the cleaning harpies short as I gave them the list of campers who would be staying through the year. They practically tore the list out of the hand and looked over it hungrily. “Snacks, snacks, yummy snacks…” one hummed ominously. I left quickly, saying a silent prayer for anyone who had forgotten to get their notice in on time.

Knowing that I still had a little time before breakfast was served in the dinning pavilion, I headed to the office to work on the orders I had neglected yesterday. As I unlocked the door, I heard familiar hoof-steps behind me and turned to see Chiron standing in his horse form, holding a clipboard. He smiled warmly at me.

“Up early, Adara?” he asked.

I nodded. “Didn’t get much done yesterday, probably best to catch up.” I explained.

There was an awkward beat, where I wasn’t sure if that was the end of the conversation or not. Chiron seemed to be wondering the same thing. Eventually he made up his mind and put the clipboard down, clasping his hands together. “I was hoping to speak with you actually.”

The man’s tone immediately caused my chest to tighten with anxiety. I knew I couldn’t be in trouble for the small incident last night, but that knowledge didn’t seem to soothe me much. “Sure thing.” I agreed, trying to appear relaxed.

“Now that the summer campers are leaving, I’ll have some more time on my hands, and I’d like to increase your training.” He paused slightly before continuing. “I’ve already spoken with your father about this, and he’s agreed.”

My hand clenched tightly around the keys. I couldn’t be mad at Chiron for talking about me to my dad, he didn’t really have a choice after all. But it still made me feel like a trouble-child, which…I suppose I was. It was a depressing thought. “Okay, just let me know when.” I finally responded.

Chiron smiled, a glint of relief in his eye. “Wonderful.” He picked his clipboard back up and turned to leave, but paused halfway. “Oh, if you like, how about you start thinking about what the winter field trip could be.” he suggested, bringing a smile to my face. Chiron always chose the winter field trip. Getting to pick was a big honour.

I was in a much better mood by the time the breakfast horn sounded. And after last night, I felt a glimmer of hope that maybe Pollux was open to getting to know each other better, and that this weird distance was only on my side. As we sat at the table, I tried to ignore our father, still feeling some annoyance that he would rather talk to Chiron _about me_ than actually talk _to me_.

I accidentally drowned my eggs in ketchup before offering the bottle to Pollux. He declined with a wave of his hand. “Do you not like ketchup?” I asked, trying to use my fork to scoop some of the excess sauce off my eggs and dump it on the side.

Pollux shrugged. “I do, just not really on eggs. Definitely on fries though,” he answered, shoving a bite in his mouth.

“Fries...” I said mournfully. I missed fries. Camp tended to only have healthier foods, and I hadn’t left camp in 2 years. I was seriously missing fast food. Minorly successful at saving my drowned eggs, I spoke up again. “Where would you want to go on the winter field trip?” I asked.

I noticed Mr. D cast a glance our way, as if he was vaguely surprised we were still speaking. Pollux thought for a moment. “Maybe Olympus. It would be cool to see the remodels. Why?”

I nodded in agreement. “Chiron is letting me choose.” I replied, before I could stop myself. Mr D let out a long ‘hmm’ noise, now fully turning his attention to us.

“He said that did he?” Mr. D questioned, like it was amusing. “As camp director I get final say of course.” he informed me, taking a sip of diet coke, which seemed weird to me given it was the morning.

I was feeling brave today. For better or worse, I asked- “Don’t you want to visit Olympus too? To see Ariadne?”

I felt Pollux stiffen beside me. I knew instantly I should have kept my mouth shut. Our dad’s wife, Ariadne, the once human princess of Crete, was always a sore subject. Mr. D’s banishment to camp meant that he almost never got to see her. A while ago, during one of our few late night conversations, Pollux had suggested that the only reason Mr. D even had demi-god kids with mortal women was because he missed Ariadne.

I waited for my punishment in tense silence. Banishment from the filed trip, cleaning the pegasi stables for a month, something like that. Instead Mr. D simply turned away disdainfully. “Finish your breakfast, Adara.” he muttered, in an annoyed voice. I shut up and funneled the food into my mouth.

A little while later I found myself leaning against one of the large trees along the camp boundary, watching everyone board Argus’ bus or meet up with their parents. Most of the parents seemed relieved and happy to see their kids, while others appeared to still be dubious of the whole Camp Half Blood thing. You could always spot the uncertain ones by the way they stared at all the bruised and messy looking kids in matching orange camp shirts like they couldn’t believe how many there were. I suppose it was easier to imagine that your own kid turning out to be a demi-god and writing it off as a strange miracle. But an army of powered up teens with serious parent-issues and no curfew was more than a little concerning.

I watched one of the Hermes kids, a younger girl who had just completed her first summer, run into her mother’s arms, her entire body sagging with relief the moment the woman wrapped her arms around her daughter. I felt a burning in my throat, my hand ghosting over the base of my neck shakily.

I wanted to see my mom.

There was no denying it. It had been two years since the last time I’d been able to run into the comforting arms of my mother like that girl, and feel the warm relief that came with knowing nothing bad could happen to you in that moment. Mournfully, I realized that I might not get to feel that way ever again. I looked away from the pair before the burning ring at the base of my throat became too much and I couldn’t breathe.

“Hey! Adara, right?” A cheery voice came from behind me, causing me to nearly jump out my skin.

I turned to see who was there, recognizing that brown mop of hair from last night. “Oh, hey Theo.” I replied, trying to appear as if I hadn’t just had my wits scared out of me.

The boy, Theo, took it upon himself to lean against the other side of the tree, watching the campers with me. I decided it would be rude to tell him to go away so I could continue to mope in my own little world.

After a few moments I got the feeling Theo was building himself up to say something. I kicked at a pinecone with my shoe, waiting for him to find the words he was looking for.

“So, um…” he began, slowly, “you stay here year-round right?” he asked.

I wondered where this could possibly be going. “Yep.” I answered, simply.

“Do—I mean are—” he struggled, and what I had first perceived as stupidity I now realized was nerves. “Are things the same as during the summer? I don’t want to sound dumb for asking or anything, but no one has really mentioned what we’re supposed to do during the year? I know summer seems to focus more intensely on training, so…what do we do for the rest of the year?”

Suddenly I felt sympathy for the boy. It was his first time staying year round, he was probably sad his friends were all leaving on top of being confused about what was going to happen. “Oh…well, we still do training- there’s usually just enough kids to still have capture the flag and stuff. There’s a lot more free time to kind of pick and choose what you want to specialize in.” I explained. “Oh, and we go on a field trip in the winter.”

Theo’s bright blue eyes lit up a bit. “Really? That sounds fun.”

I nodded, managing a smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to being here. I know—” I caught myself, not wanting to assume too much about this boy’s feelings. “I mean, when it was my first full year, it wasn’t really until the summer kids left that it sunk in that I wasn’t going home for a long time. It can be a bit overwhelming. That’s why we don’t have any events scheduled for today.”

Theo nodded, and I hoped my words had comforted him a little. I still wasn’t sure why he had come to me for comfort, but I told myself it was just a matter of being the only one around at the moment.

I turned and headed back to camp when I heard another pair of footsteps trudging down the hill as well. I looked back to see Theo had began to follow. _No_ , I told myself, it was presumptuous to think he was following me, this was just the way back to camp.

“Do you like canoes?” the boy asked as we entered the clearing.

I was a little stunned. “Canoes?” I questioned. I had never been in one of the canoes. Aside from not being the most sport inclined demi-god, I also didn’t want to go alone and ever since word had gotten around about my powers, campers were a little too nervous to be in confined physical proximity with me. But not this one apparently.

Theo laughed at my reaction, nodding his head insistently. “Long thing, you make it move with a paddle. Sort of like a dollar-store trireme.” he explained, amused. The sullen vulnerability from moments before was gone. I wondered how he bounced back so quickly.

“I’ve never been.” I explained. “Besides, I have strawberry orders to deal with.”

The boy shrugged, “next time then. I could teach you!” he promised. “Well, see you around. Thanks for before!” He gently nudged my shoulder with his fist before bounding off towards the dock.

Now I want to emphasize that I’m not a total loner, I do talk to people. It’s just that most people aren’t that eager to talk back. I can’t blame them for being worried about my powers- they worry me too. Other campers will hold up a short conversation with me, but we don’t make plans or nudge each other playfully. We’re not _friends_. 

It was the unconcerned way that Theo looked me in the eye when he spoke to me, like he wasn’t even a little afraid, that’s what had me stunned in place. I snapped out of my shock when I noticed the door of the big house open and Mr. D waltz out, surveying the yard. I made a quick dip toward the tree line, opting to take the backway around rather than face my father again so soon after this morning.

It was just after lunch and it had already been a strange day. I followed Chiron’s advice, and kept my equilibrium, but I couldn’t understand what this Apollo kid’s game was. Did someone forget to tell him about me, or did he just not care? Either way, I tried not to think on it anymore. After all, the strawberries weren’t going to ship themselves. At least, _not_ _yet_ \- but we were working on something for that.


	3. I Nearly Kick a Liminade in the Face

The weather had warmed back up, and I was enjoying a state of relaxed semi-consciousness as I laid in the strawberry fields. The added benefit of the strawberry fields were that the satyrs used their pipes to magically encourage any creepy crawly little bugs to go elsewhere, so you could take a nap without the risk of swallowing a ladybug or something.

It had been a few days since the summer campers had left. For the most part, everyone else went back to business as usual. People trained, people sang by the campfire, there were even talks of a capture the flag game. I appreciated that the fewer number of campers around meant that on lucky days, I could sneak an archery lesson in or some sparring.

Pollux had even taught me a new move to disarm an enemy, sending their weapon flying. I did fairly well aside from accidentally hitting him in the chin with my elbow once. After a slew of apologies, Pollux had forgiven me with what I could have sworn was the slightest hint of amusement. _Progress_.

I sat up, looking towards the big house. Somewhere inside Mr. D was likely moping, playing pinochle and muttering about how annoying campers were. I still hadn’t spoken to him since the incident at dinner the other night. I swore I heard Chiron getting told off about letting me choose the winter field trip without consulting him, which was a bit ridiculous given Mr. D never wanted to be consulted on anything. He hated being consulted because it interrupted his valuable time spent _not_ thinking about Camp Half Blood.

I stretched and stole a strawberry from the vine, taking a large bite out of it. They were always crisp and sweet, just like how strawberries should be. I let myself wish that I could have gotten Pollux’s powers instead. Things would have been so much simpler that way.

As I finished off my stolen berry, I noticed Theo coming out of Infirmary (which was inside the big house), and by the exhausted way he began walking back towards the cabins, I guessed he had just been relieved from a night shift and was heading to bed. I smiled, watching his floppy hair bounce as he trudged his way to bed.

As expected, Theo had easily made new friends over the past few days, in absence of the summer campers. He always seemed to be running around camp somewhere, never sitting still-- possibly from the ADHD or possibly from just being an Apollo kid. Whenever he noticed me in the distance he’d smile and wave though, which was nice. I hadn’t expected him to even keep up the façade of friendliness after he’d settled in.

The night before, during dinner, the Apollo cabin burst in, straight from the arts and crafts cabin, carrying baskets of freshly pressed buttons for everyone. They had a depiction of each of the four seasons of them with the typical camp half blood pegasus over top and across the bottom it said ‘Team All Year-ers’- which as grammar went was a nightmare of a name.

I had watched with vague amusement as they went around handing pins out to everyone, before Theo eventually made his way over to me, a glint in his eye. He first held the basket out to Pollux who took one, I think just not to be rude. I reached up to take one as well, but Theo pulled the basket away. “No, no, I have a special one for you.” he smirked.

I panicked for a moment, thinking the worse- but then Theo pulled another button out his pocket which looked the same as the others except across the top it said ‘Manager’, just like my sweater. I must have had an equally amused and confused look on my face because Theo then spoke up explaining,

“It only makes sense- you make sure we don’t get eaten by the cleaning harpies afterall.” He said, smiling so brightly that there was no question he was a child of the sun god. “See you ‘round, Adara!” he added before bounding off.

I pinned the button to my shirt with a small smile. Pollux gave me questioning look and asked, “Do you know that kid?” I noticed Mr. D was also waiting for my answer, although he was feigning disinterest.

“No, not really.” I answered, which hadn’t been a complete lie.

I was genuinely glad to see that Theo was fitting in with the year-round crowd. I would never wish isolation on anyone. But I had to admit that the more days passed when he didn’t ask me again if I wanted to do something, the more disappointed I got.

With a huff, I observed that it was a beautiful day, and the canoeing lake didn’t have anyone on it. I thought to myself, ‘why should I have to wait until this kid asked me to go canoeing’. I could go on my own. It’s not like I had any training to do since Mr. D was still so annoyed with my comment about going to Olympus that I was pretty sure he’d rather have time added to his sentence as Camp Director than spend some one on one time with me.

I marched my way over to the canoe lake with determined confidence. It was paddling a hunk of wood afterall, how hard could it be? Well as it turned out, pretty difficult for one uncoordinated demi-god who had never done it before…

I struggled to pull the smallest canoe I could find down from the rack, nearly taking my toe off when it hit the ground. After tossing an oar inside, I managed to drag the thing down to where the ground dipped into the shallows of the lake. In one graceful (alright, very _ungraceful)_ move, I managed to shove the canoe into the water and hop in before it got too far away.

I caught on pretty fast that with just one person, you had to paddle each side alternately in order to actually go anywhere and not spin in circles. But once I cracked that code, I was off! I made it to the center of the lake, pride spreading over me that I had actually worked up the nerve to do this. I set the paddle down and let the canoe just drift gently for a moment while I sat back, closing my eyes and raising my face to the warm autumn sun in relaxed contemplation.

Suddenly feeling a tickle on my hand, I opened my eyes to shake what I assumed would be a mosquito off, only to find the largest field spider I had ever seen crawling its way up towards my arm. Now, to understand what happened next, you need to realize how much I despise all things creepy crawly. Like, the kind of fear and hate that could rival what an Athena kid felt about spiders.

Letting out a mix between a gasp and a cry, I shot up from my seat, wildly shaking my hand to get the spider off. To my absolute despair the monster looking thing fell onto my leg. In all my infinite wisdom, and driven the desire to _not_ touch the thing with my hand, I kicked my leg wildly until the spider flew off. This caused the canoe to shake dangerously, and, one leg still in the air, I fell backwards out the canoe, slamming my wrist painfully against the hard wooden edge as I crashed into the lake.

Underwater, I clutched my left arm against my chest tightly, struggling to kick back to the surface so I could breathe through the pain without, you know, _drowning._ As I blindly shot up to the surface, I managed to also smack my face against the overturned canoe, leaving a small cut just above my eyebrow.

This was going _fantastic_.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to get back in the canoe, let alone paddle back, with the way my wrist was feeling, I decided to just swim for it. While still attempting to cradle my hurt arm, I grabbed the canoe with the other and used my feet to swim forward. Every once in a while my face dipped under water momentarily as, unsurprisingly, not being able to use either of your arms made keeping your head above water a little more difficult. Despite this, I was doing fine, almost at the edge, when I breathed a little too early and swallowed a nose full of water. Coughing by instinct to clear my airway, I found myself suddenly in a state of complete panic and I didn’t know why.

Even though I my nose was clear, I still felt like I couldn’t breathe for some reason. It was like I could feel hands tightening around my throat. _No, not again!_ I cried out, but my voice was nothing more than straggled gasps. Letting go of the canoe I tried to pry the non-existant hands off my neck. Kicking and thrashing in wild panic. I wasn’t at the lake anymore, I was in that room again and this time I was sure I was going to die.

“Hey, stop kicking- I’m trying to help you!” a high pitched voice broke through. I felt cool silky hands grip me tight and suddenly we were catapulted to the shore. “HEY!” the voice called out, snaping her hands. “Di immortales, sorry about this.” the girl said, before squeezing my injured wrist. The pain instantly brought me back to reality.

“OW!” I whimpered, pulling away from the harsh grip. I coughed, taking gulping breaths as I finally felt like the air was filling my lungs properly. When I caught my breath, I looked up to realize that my saviour had been one of the lake naiads, a Liminade called Lina. She was staring at me incredulously.

“What the heck was that?” She questioned.

I rolled onto my back, exhausted. “Sorry, Lina…I just…panicked.”

“I’ll say!” she scoffed, her high pitched voice making her angry words seem far less threatening. “You’re lucky I was keeping an eye out. Do you want me to get someone?” she asked, inspecting my sorry state from the edge of the water.

“No, no, I can walk back.” I assured her, standing up. The Liminade gave me an uncertain look before drifting back into the water. “Okay, well, send someone else to come get that canoe at least. I don’t want it floating around my lake. And the paddle too- wherever it went!”

I nodded, apologizing once more before starting what was sure to be a fun walk back to my cabin to get cleaned up. As if the normal stares I got weren’t bad enough, now I was soaking wet, with damp sand clinging to me, nursing a banged-up arm. And I was pretty sure blood had begun to drip down the side of my face.

I walked about as brisk as I could, but my lungs still stung otherwise I would have been sprinting. As I passed the other cabins I tried my best to imagine I was invisible, hoping no one would notice me and I could slip into the Dionysus cabin undetected. I was almost in the clear when from the Apollo cabin’s steps I heard a shocked,

“Adara!?”

I attempted to wave and keep on my way, but Theo, _of course_ it was Theo of all people, came running over, eyes wide with concern. “Adara what happened, are you okay??” he asked, and I noticed the bags under his eyes- he must not have taken a nap after his shift.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a…” I hesitated, looking anywhere but at the boy’s piercing eyes. “…a minor incident at the lake.”

“A minor incident?” he questioned, looking me over. “You’re bleeding! And what’s wrong with your arm?”

“It’s not as bad as it seems, really.” I assured him, face burning with embarrassment.

“Oh really?” Theo asked, and it was the first time I had heard him sound so serious. “Let’s see.” He barely touched my wrist and I writhed in pain. “It’s already bruising, you probably broke it. I’m taking you to the infirmary.” He stated.

I opened my mouth to protest, but Theo already had a firm yet gentle grip on my other arm, leading me away. It was probably for the best, given that other campers had begun to notice the scene and were staring.

I felt embarrassed and ashamed, keeping my head down as Theo led me towards the infirmary. After a few moments he glanced back at me, face softening. “Sorry for snapping at you, I was just worried.” he admitted.

I nodded dumbly. “It’s okay.”

“What were you doing anyways?” he asked, tone softer.

“I was trying to canoe.” I admitted, feeling guilty for some reason.

Theo let out a half-hearted chuckle, stopping for a moment. “If you wanted to canoe, you could have asked me, you know?” he said. “I didn’t ask you again because I thought you weren’t interested.”

I blinked, feeling like a complete idiot. _Of course_ he hadn’t asked me again after I had given him such a short response that day. This was all my fault. “I am interested!” I piped up, urgently.

Finally Theo found his smile again. “Well, I don’t think you’re going to be allowed in a canoe for a while since you’re ganna need a cast for that arm.” My face fell, but Theo continued to smile brightly. “We’ll just have to find something else to do until it comes off.” he added, continuing to walk again.

When we reached the big house, Chiron was waiting outside a worried look on his face. “Adara dear, you look like you’ve been through a terrible mess.” He observed.

“Don’t tell my dad.” I begged, hopefully.

Chiron’s face said it all before he even opened his mouth. “I’m afraid Lina told a wood nymph, who told a satyr, who came straight to Mr. D…”

Word spread fast among creatures of nature. They were all such terrible gossips.

I felt myself deflate even further if that were possible. Theo gave me a sympathetic look before leading me up the stairs and to a bed. While I rested, he explained to one of his half-siblings what injuries he had noted already. I closed my eyes and brought my hand to the base of my neck. I couldn’t tell if I was shivering from being soaking wet or if my hand was shaking from fear. All I knew was that those hands around my throat had felt so real.

“Adara?” I snapped my eyes open to see Theo and his sibling hovering over me. “We’re ganna take a look at your arm now, okay?”

I nodded, silently wondering which would be more painful- the broken bone, or the lecture I was sure to get from my father….


	4. I Play Cards with a God at 3am

One of the other Apollo kids working at the Infirmary had brought me a change of clothes before anything else, which I was more than grateful for. Despite the mild weather, I hated the way wet clothes clung to my body, and I was pretty sure the smell of the lake wasn’t the most pleasant aroma. I was careful of my arm as I gently pushed it into the sleeve of the grey infirmary shirt, and I managed to get the fuzzy matching grey track pants on without any help.

I kept waiting for Theo to pass things off to one of his siblings and go to bed, but he didn’t move from the chair at my bedside as I was worked on, instead joking with his sibling the whole time. I could tell he was tired by the way he sometimes stared off for a moment before remembering to reply, but he kept throwing me reassuring glances as the layers of plaster were wrapped around my wrist. I couldn’t comprehend why on earth he didn’t just leave already, it wasn’t like we were that close, or close at all for the matter. He didn’t need to go to all this fuss for someone like me…

Once the cast was all placed, I had to keep it hanging above a bucket to catch any drips while it dried. The whole thing felt very dramatic. It wasn’t until Theo’s sibling left, I finally got the chance to ask the question which had been burning in my mind since we’d come into the infirmary.

“How did you know that I’d need a cast?” I asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Theo blinked, looking a little confused. “I’m no professional doctor, but I think a cast for a broken wrist is pretty basic medical knowledge.” he laughed.

“No, I mean…How did you know that I can’t just use ambrosia like everyone else?” I clarified.

I should pause to explain. Have you ever eaten a piece of cake that was like, the most amazing cake you’ve ever had in your life? The kind of cake where you take a bite and your entire body just relaxes and you forget where you are and what you were talking about before you took a bite? Ambrosia squares taste like that, _except better_. It heals half-bloods, but it’s also very potent stuff. Most demi-gods feel a little overwhelmed from it, and end up in a dizzy kind of happy-trance for a bit.

Now, I’m not sure how exactly it works, but Mr. D once explained to me that how demi-gods react to ambrosia is very similar to what ritual madness feels like. You might have guessed where I’m going with this. If I were to get hopped up on ambrosia, I might accidentally send the whole camp into a bacchanalia. So, unfortunately for me, while other half bloods could eat some ambrosia and walk off a sprained ankle an hour later, I got to experience the full joys of wearing a cast for 6-8 weeks, complete with covering it in a plastic bag in the shower.

Theo rubbed the back of his neck a little guiltily. “It’s part of our medical training for the Apollo cabin. We have to know about any special cases with each camper in case of emergency. So…I’ve read your file.” He admitted.

My mouth went dry. “All of it?” I asked, my voice cracking.

Before I could get a reply, the doors burst open and to my surprise, it was Pollux who stood there looking around, a troubled expression on his face. Our eyes met and he seemed to let out a breath of relief as he made his way over.

“I overheard some campers say that you had been dragged from the lake all bloody and taken straight to the infirmary. Are you alright?” he asked.

I found myself at a loss of words. Pollux had been worried about me? It wasn’t so far fetched, but the concern for my wellbeing made me feel uneasy for some reason.

“It wasn’t as dramatic as that.” Theo answered for me. “Just a minor incident with a canoe.” he smiled, tossing me a wink. “And the wrist turned out only the be a minor break. No real harm.”

Pollux shook his head as he looked at the cast on my arm. “Aside from that…you’re going to be okay?” he asked, still seeming a little uneasy.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I assured him, managing a smile.

Pollux nodded, an awkward silence falling over us. I wondered if he was thinking about losing Castor. I felt bad for making him worry, even if I was only a half-sibling and couldn’t really compare.

“Oh, um… Lina the lake naiad, she’s going to be mad if someone doesn’t fish the canoe out her lake. Do you think you could?” I asked, Pollux. He nodded eagerly, seemingly relieved to have something to do.

“Sure thing.” He agreed, glancing worriedly at my cast once more before leaving.

“Your brother seems nice.” Theo commented, as I stared after him. “It must be different since there are just two of you. There’s so many of us Apollo kids, it’s hard to really see everyone as siblings.”

I had barely processed Theo’s words before one of his aforementioned half-siblings came over to scold him for still being awake. He tried to protest, but I jumped in and insisted he go get some rest. Mostly because he looked dead on his feet, but also because I needed some time to comprehend that he had read my file. That he _knew._

Theo eventually left, although it was reluctantly. But he promised to come back tomorrow morning and be the first person to sign my cast. I managed a small smile and a nod. Once everyone was gone, and the cast was finally dry, I laid back in bed, exhausted. Today had taken a series of wild turns, and I wished I had just stayed napping in the strawberry fields if I was being honest.

The food in the infirmary wasn’t great, but Pollux stopped by to drop off some of my stuff later in the evening and with it he snuck me a contraband chocolate bar he had traded from a Hermes kid. It cheered me up despite having to spend the night in the infirmary for observation.

It was just my luck that there was no one else in the infirmary, so all I could really do was stare at the ceiling blankly until I fell asleep bundled in the clinical smelling sheets. It wasn’t a restful sleep to say the least. I couldn’t get comfortable with the bulky cast on my wrist, waking up every hour or so to try a different position. Eventually I must have fallen asleep for real, because I started dreaming- which was never a good thing for a half-blood.

I was in my bedroom back home, in the little apartment I shared with my mother. It was storming outside and the rain drops on the window started to blur together as my vision faded in and out. I was gasping and choking for breath, my eyes watering. The more I struggled the tighter the hands wrapped around my throat. A black halo started to form around my vision, and I knew I didn’t have long. In those final moments an unknowingly strong will to live kick in and I silently shouted out to the heavens ‘ _Help me!! Dad help me!!’._ There was another flash of lighting and Dionysus, in his full godly attire, appeared above me. He stamped his thyrsus staff against the ground, and I could _breathe_ again.

I shot up in bed, gasping for breath.

“In then out, Adara.” A man spoke from across the room.

I looked up to find Mr. D sitting in a chair across from me, a neutral expression on his face. He raised an eyebrow expectantly. Confused, but too shook up to really question it, I did as he said, slowing my breaths and focusing on bringing as much air as possible into my lungs before releasing my breath. When my heartrate finally slowed, I peaked up at my father, who was still sitting there. I wondered if he had shown up before my dream, or if I had accidentally prayed to him in my sleep.

“Are you going to yell at me about going out on the lake by myself?” I asked, slowly.

After a moment of contemplation Mr. D shrugged. “Might as well just skip to the part where you’re not allowed to participate in any camp activities for a week.”

“A week?” I complained.

“Don’t talk back to me, I could still make you clean the Pegasi stables even with that injured arm.” He warned.

I sat back in bed, pouting. Not only had I had a horrifying nightmare, which all but ensured I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for the rest of the night, but I was pretty much grounded by Camp Half Blood standards.

I looked up and once again Mr. D was still there, giving me as equal of an unimpressed look as I was currently shooting him. After a few beats of tense silence, he eventually produced a pack of cards from out of nowhere.

“You know how to play Pinochle?” he asked.

I nodded, still pouting.

“Come on then.” He snapped, getting up and heading into the main house. After a beat, I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and followed him. If I wasn’t going to sleep, I might as well play cards with my distant father. It wasn’t like this day could get any weirder.


	5. I Make a Friend

I played cards with Mr. D into the early hours. The thing about playing cards with a god was that you didn’t have much shot at winning, as I learned many times over the past few hours. As I slammed down my cards after yet another unsuccessful game, Chiron wandered in, in his wheelchair, observing the scene. He raised an eyebrow, but refrained from asking why I wasn’t in the infirmary where I was supposed to be.

“Chiron, Mr. D is cheating I swear it!” I exclaimed.

“I don’t need to cheat when you’re this pitiful at the game.” Mr. D responded, without even looking up.

I huffed, crossing my arms. “Chiron does he cheat?”

Chiron smiled, shaking his head. “An argument for another time. Come now, Adara I think it’s time you got some sleep.”

I opened my mouth to protest but Mr. D made the cards disappear. “Listen to the horse, kid.” he muttered.

Feeling a yawn coming on, I gave in and headed back to the infirmary. I tried to listen in on Chiron and Mr. D’s conversation as much as I could while I walked but they were too far away. I swore I heard Mr. D tell Chiron to ‘shut up’ for sure though.

The next time I woke up, the sun was shining brightly. After a quick exam I was released, and just in time for breakfast too. I found I was absolutely starving after everything that had happened yesterday, so I was excited for food.

I tossed my Delphi Strawberry Service sweater on over the Infirmary pants and headed to the dining pavilion. I met up with Pollux along the way, who observed in passing that the cut on my forehead seemed like it would heal pretty nicely. I took it as his way of saying he was glad I was back. I wanted to ask my brother about Mr. D’s behaviour last night, but I didn’t get a chance before we were at the dining pavilion.

I noticed that I was getting a lot more stares than usual, and it was making me feel subconscious. I quickly pulled down the sleeve of my sweater to cover my cast. Pollux wordlessly carried my plate for me even though I was capable, and waited while I scraped some food off it for the gods.

As we were sitting down at the table, Theo seemed to materialize out of no where, catching me by the elbow. “Hey! Good to see you up and about.” he smiled.

I felt my face heat up. There was something weird about talking to Theo in front of Mr. D, who appeared very unimpressed with the constant visits to our table from this camper.

“Hey, yeah cleared for breakfast.” I replied.

“Can I sign the cast?” he asked, and it was impossible to say no to those shining blue eyes. I nodded dumbly, pulling my sleeve up enough to reveal the cast. Theo produced a marker from his pocket and hunched over as he wrote so I couldn’t see what he was doing.

I heard Pollux chuckle and I resisted the urge to throw something at him.

This was so embarrassing. I felt like everyone, including Mr. D, was watching. Finally, Theo stood up straight, winking before he headed back to his own table. I sat down and looked at what he’d messily wrote. It took me a moment to get the letters to stop floating around since I was feeling so flustered, but eventually I deciphered ‘Next time we’ll canoe together. -Theo’ with a smiley face. I flushed and pulled my sleeve back down over the cast.

Since I was banned from any physical activities, I spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the strawberry fields with Pollux while he grew a new vine. After some time, I finally asked, “do you think the gods care about their kids?”

Pollux had been at camp far longer than I had. He had seen the great war against the Titans. He had been around when the gods promised to start claiming all their kids. But more importantly, he’d seen plenty of kids die for the gods. Pollux stopped what he was doing, glancing over at me.

“The gods in general, or our dad?” he asked, cutting right to the heart of it.

I swallowed heavily. “Our dad.”

Pollux let out a long sigh, like he was remembering something difficult. “Listen Adara…I know it’s a lot harder for you than it is for me. And sure, Mr. D can be a jerk sometimes…but I do think he cares. In his own way.”

I nodded, unable to stop the next question from tumbling out my mouth. “Do you miss Castor?”

It might have been my imagination, but I swore the strawberries hung lower and lost some of their brightness in that moment. “Of course I do, he was my brother.”

“I’m sorry I never got to meet him.” I offered. Pollux shrugged, and I felt like I had possibly crossed a line he wasn’t ready to cross yet. I decided to leave him be, standing up and dusting myself off. “I’m glad that I have you, even if we’re only half siblings.” I added, before heading off.

I wandered down towards the forest, passing the armoury. I saw Theo inside, polishing swords with some other campers. When he noticed me, his face broke into a smile. I waved and he whispered something to his friend, who rolled their eyes but nodded. Patting his friend on the back, Theo jogged over to me.

“You just got me out armoury duty.” he informed me, happily.

I raised an eyebrow. “How?”

Theo smirked, walking backwards in front of me. “Well I told him that I had to supervise my friend who just got out of the infirmary. Make sure she didn’t trip on her own shoelaces and dislocate a shoulder, you know.”

I stopped in my steps. “Friend?”

“Yeah.” Theo looked more confused than I did. He reached forward and pushed my sleeve up pointing to my cast. “That’s the proof right there. Only friends get to sign each other’s casts.”

It was such a simple concept, but I felt overwhelmed by the simple kindness of the gesture. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had called me their friend. Theo waited patiently for me to mull over the idea.

“Um… listen, Theo…about my file—”

Theo held a hand up to stop me. “I read that as a healer, not as a friend. Unless it’s a medical emergency, or until you decide to tell me, I don’t know it.”

I felt a weight lift off my chest. Despite myself, I reached forward and hugged Theo. In so little time he had made such a difference. I still didn’t know why he wanted to be my friend, but I was glad he did. And until he decided he didn’t want to be anymore, I was going to enjoy every bit of this warmth he offered.

Letting out a soft chuckle, Theo gently patted my back. “Alright, come on Paddles, how about we go feed the pegasi some apples or something?”

I shook my head, amused. “Paddles?”

Theo shrugged, a self satisfied smirk on his face. “Yeah, they never found the paddle you lost in the lake.” he explained. He pointed to me, “Hence, _Paddles.”_

“That’s so lame.”

“You’re lame.”

“Shut up.”

It was stupid and fun. It was dangerously easy to let my guard down when Theo smiled at me with his hopeful eyes. The whole thing seemed too good to last… 


	6. Theatre Goes Very Wrong

To put it simply, I was having the best time at camp I had ever had before. It had been two weeks of being so chest-achingly happy that I couldn’t believe my heart hadn’t completely burst yet. In the mornings I hung out with Pollux in the strawberry fields, helping him get the orders for the week ready. I couldn’t do any of the growing, but I picked strawberries and we fell into a comfortable routine, chatting about nothing in particular while we worked. And then every three days or so, I’d join Pollux and Mr. D for an evening game of pinochle. Sometimes Chiron joined us too, and on those days we’d finally get to see someone beat Mr. D at his own game. It made losing worth it.

In-between his chores and training, Theo and I would find something fun to do. Theo always had the best ideas. The day before, he had corralled some other campers to help us hang up a large roll of paper. We attached balloons full of paint and then archers shot them, creating a mosaic of colourful splashes.

The best part was that Theo was so loved by his other friends that just by association more people had started smiling and chatting with me as well. I’d refereed a volleyball game between some of the Apollo kids- unable to play myself since I was still in the cast. It came down to my call for if the game-winning shot was in-bounds or not, and I had to give it to the other team. They cheered in celebration and high fived me, while Theo’s team whined. “You’re such a traitor, Paddles!” Theo had called. I only smirked down at him from my referee’s chair happily.

I’d even had two pretty successful late-night training sessions with Chiron to practice controlling my powers. Those, I hadn’t told Theo about… I was afraid if he thought I couldn’t control my powers properly he wouldn’t want to be friends anymore, and I had started to become used to this new routine of ours…

I was well aware of the tale of Icarus, flying too close to the sun and crashing to the ground for his mistake. I knew all this, yet I couldn’t help but keep flying closer. I had sympathy for Icarus…everyone made fun of him for flying to the sun, but they didn’t know what it was like to spend their days in the shadow.

It was a crisp September afternoon. Theo and I were lounging around the steps of the amphitheatre wasting time before dinner. Theo sat up, a mischievous look on his face that told me he was about to do something stupid. “So…your dad is also the god of theatre, right?” he asked, smoothly.

I sat up, cocking an eyebrow. “Yes…why?” I asked, curious.

“Well, then I must honour his daughter, a _demi_ - _god_ _of theatre_ with a performance!” Theo bowed, stepping to the center of the stage. He cleared his throat, raising his nose up.

“Please tell me you’re not going to sing!” I heckled from my front row seat.

“Shut up, I’m _performing_!”

I raised my hands in defense, stifling a laugh. After a moment, he slouched down and pretended to hold a drink, taking a long sip.

“Ugh disgusting little campers everywhere all day. Go fight some monsters or something so I don’t have to look at you.” He mocked, in Mr. D’s voice.

I almost gasped. “You’re making fun of the God of Theatre _IN_ a theatre!?” I exclaimed, eyes wide. “You’re going get smote!” I warned him.

Theo continued on anyways. “All I want to do is play a nice game of pinochle!” He took another fake sip of his drink before pretending to spit it out. “I’m sick of diet coke. I’ve drank more diet cokes than Prometheus has had livers pecked out! One glass of wine couldn’t hurt…”

I hopped up from my seat and joined Theo in the center, clomping non-existent hooves, and standing with my back pin-straight like Chiron. “Mr. D!” I exclaimed, attempting to speak like Chiron. “You are banned from drinking wine, you know this!”

We both broke into boisterous laughter.

“Why Chiron, my dear horse friend, if you let this one glass slide, I’ll let you win the next game of pinochle!”

I clasped my hand on Theo’s shoulder, trying to speak between laughter. “My dear friend, I’d win anyways!”

We kept laughing, both of us trying to add more, but laughing at our own joke before we could even get it out. I felt drunk on laughter; my head was light and there was a warmth flowing through my body. I didn’t want it to stop.

After a few moments, Theo’s hand clutched my arm a little too tightly.

“Haha…Adara—I…I…” he tried to speak, but he was laughing too hard. “—Adara I can’t stop laughing!” he chuckled.

I nodded, tears building in my eyes. “Me either!” I exclaimed.

Theo shook his head, his eyes panicked, but a smile still plastered on his face. “No! I—I—ahahaha, I _really_ can’t stop, Adara!” he explained, still laughing hysterically.

“What?” I questioned, shaking my head. I slowly stopped laughing, wiping the tears from my eye. I looked at Theo properly for the first time and saw the fear in his eyes as he continued to laugh. His face was starting to get red and his hand clutched my arm harder.

“THEO!” I screamed, instantly sober. “Oh my gods. Theo stop laughing! I—I want you to stop laughing!” I tried, desperately to stop what I was unintentionally doing. He fell to his knees, face growing even more red. Tears were pouring from the sides of his eyes now.

“HELP!! SOMEONE GET HELP!!” I screamed. Nearby campers hesitated, shocked, before sprinting off. I held Theo in my arms as he fell down onto his back, the horrifying laughter echoing around the amphitheatre.

“No, nonono!! Please Theo!” I clutched his arms tightly, trying to pull the insanity back to myself with no success. “Stop!! Please I didn’t mean to!! THEO! I’m sorry I’m sosorry sosososorry.” I cried, tears matching Theo’s.

“Get away.” Mr. D’s calm but authoritative voice cut through my sobs.

“I didn’t mean to! Please!! Help him!” I begged.

A pair of arms pulled me back. I turned to see Pollux holding me. “He has to be okay!” I demanded, as Mr. D knelt beside Theo who was now writhing in painful laugher. He placed his hand on the boy’s forehead, closing his eyes in concentration. Slowly, Theo stopped moving, the laughter dying down until he seemed to pass out.

By now a group of campers, including most of Theo’s half-siblings had gathered to watch the scene. I tried to step forward, but Pollux held me back. “Is he okay!?” I asked my father, chest heaving.

“You kids, help get him back to the Infirmary.” Mr. D instructed. “Pollux, take her back to your cabin.” he added, without looking at me.

“No! I’m going with him!” I argued.

Chiron stepped forward and put a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You’ll be of no use to him in this state, my dear. Take some time to calm down, and then visit him later.” he suggested, quietly. I looked around at the faces of the campers as they prepared to carry Theo back to the infirmary. It was a mix of worry, fear, and anger. They blamed me…and they were right. It was all my fault.

I let Pollux pull me away before anyone could say anything more. In one swooping moment I had destroyed all the trust I had built with everyone over the past weeks. My throat burned like I had swallowed glass.

Back in the Dionysus cabin, Pollux sat with me on my bed while I sobbed. He tried to comfort me, but it did nothing to help. I couldn’t get Theo’s terrified eyes, or that haunting laugh, out of my mind.

An hour later, I was laid on top of the covers, breathing shallowly and hugging a pillow while I stared at the wall with empty eyes. Pollux sat on his bed across the cabin reading, warily glancing over at me every few moments to make sure I was still okay. I wasn’t.

Finally, Chiron knocked on the door to tell us that Theo was doing fine, and he was awake if I wanted to visit him. I was up and out the door before Chiron or Pollux had a chance to stop me. With shaky hands I slowly opened the infirmary door. The bright lights stung my tear stained eyes. I blinked a few times before noticing Theo, who was sat up in bed chatting with his siblings.

A wave of relief washed over me. “You’re okay.” I breathed, my voice catching Theo’s attention. His bright blue eyes met mine. He smiled and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by one of his siblings, a tall blonde girl with sharp features.

She stared me down and sneered, “What are _you_ doing here?”

My heart stopped.

“Devon!” Theo scolded. “Stop it.”

I swallowed heavily. “N-no…she’s right.” I stammered. “This was my fault… I s-should go. I’m sorry…so sorry.” I muttered, turning on my heels and running out.

“Adara wait!” I heard Theo call, as I ran away, but I didn’t look back. I passed Chiron as I ran, he tried to ask me what was wrong but I couldn’t stop. I ran all the way to the fireworks beach before finally collapsing to my knees.

I could feel those hands again…And this time her words rang through my mind over and over.

_You’re wrong, Adara._

_You’re a monster, Adara._

_You should die, Adara…_


	7. I Live In a World Without Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING** - this chapter deals with heavy topics (depression, alcoholism, abuse), read with caution.

It was late, that much I could tell from the stiffness of my limbs. I wasn’t sure how long I had been sitting on the beach, but the sand had long grown cold and the tide had started getting closer. “It’s late my dear, how about I walk you to your cabin?” Chiron asked in a gentle voice.

“Things will be better tomorrow.” he promised me, as he said goodbye at the cabin door. Pollux waved goodnight to the old mentor, closing the cabin door behind me as I quietly got into bed. Tomorrow…what a concept.

“Adara? You coming to breakfast?” Pollux asked in the morning. I stayed in under my covers, hiding my sore eyes from the morning light. After receiving no response, I heard his footsteps head to the door. “I’ll bring you something back.” he called. I continued to stare at the wall.

I woke a while later to the sound of a plate being placed on my side table. It was annoying. I went back to sleep.

My hip had started to grow sore from laying on my side, but I couldn’t bring myself to roll over. Every single limb felt heavy, and my stomach protested anytime I moved anyways. I heard Pollux’s footsteps hovering again. I wished he would stop that.

“You should come to dinner, Adara. No one will say anything.” he assured me. I could sense his frustration. It wasn’t my fault he was getting annoyed. All he had to do was stop worrying about it and leave me alone. With a heavy sigh I heard him remove the old plate. “Fine, I’ll bring something back, but at least touch it this time.”

Later in the evening I awoke to hushed voices talking in the doorway.

“Nothing?” Chiron asked, worried.

“Not even anything to drink.” Pollux replied.

“I see…”

There was a long pause. I could feel their eyes on me. I hated that I could practically hear their thoughts. ‘What should we do with her?’ If my throat wasn’t burning, I might have worked up the energy to tell them not to go to any trouble.

The second day Pollux didn’t bother asking, he silently left and took away untouched plates and drinks. I was glad at least I didn’t have to explicitly ignore him. It’s not that I wanted to hurt him, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do anything. I felt sick from laying down so long- my head was pounding and my hair felt knotted and gross. A part of me wanted to get up, to find a cooler bed at least, but nothing moved when I told it to. The burning tears came back.

There was a knock at the cabin door, I heard Pollux put his book down to answer.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Pollux said, in a hushed but serious voice.

This caught my attention.

“ _Please_ , can I just talk to her? Let her know it wasn’t her fault.” Theo’s voice argued back. I took the fact that he was able to walk around and speak properly to mean I hadn’t completely incapacitated him. That was good, I suppose. It made no difference though…what was done was done. I had already decided that for his own good, whatever friendship we had been building was over.

“It’s not a good idea, man…Just…give it some time.” Pollux argued. “And maybe talk to your siblings.” he added, tone more defensive now.

“I did! I told them what happened. That it was an accident.” Theo argued, desperately.

“Yeah well, seems like they didn’t get the message.” Pollux sneered, shutting the door.

My chest ached. Was Theo fighting with his siblings now over this whole thing? I felt the bed dip at the end as Pollux sat down. He hesitated for a moment before seemingly losing his nerve and getting up again.

When Pollux left the next morning for breakfast, I managed to roll over to lie on my back. The ceiling was a nice change of view. My cast had begun to itch annoyingly though. I looked down at the cream coloured bandages, Theo’s messy handwriting the only spot of colour. I remembered what he had said about only friends get to sign each other’s casts and suddenly I felt like I couldn’t stand to see the thing.

My sore limbs screaming in protest the whole time, I sat up. My head spun for a few moments before I was able to focus. I made my way, stumbling, over to Pollux’s side of the room. Normally I would never go through his things, but I knew for a fact he kept a small, serrated knife wedged into his bedside table in case of emergencies.

It took a full hour of exhausting hacking, during which I was sure I had nicked my skin a few times, but I had managed to get the cast off. Powder and pieces of cast lay like an explosion around me on the bed. My wrist throbbed painfully from all the strain, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret the action.

The door opened and Pollux stopped in his tracks, surprised to see me sitting up. His took in the scene before him before sucking in a tight breath. “Okay, that’s it.” he muttered, walking over to me determinedly. “Come on, we’re going to the infirmary.”

“No!” I argued, my voice cracking. I couldn’t face all of Theo’s half-siblings and their hateful glares. I tried to push Pollux away using my good arm, but even if I wasn’t dizzy and exhausted, Pollux could have definitely taken me in a fight.

“Not a choice anymore, Sis.” He said as he scooped his arms under my legs, the other wrapped around my torso. There was no getting out of this now. The most I could do was curl in on myself as small as I could and try to cover my face with my hand.

It was loud and bright outside, but at least the overwhelming assault on my senses meant that I didn’t notice any whispers or stares as Pollux carried me towards the big house. I didn’t even have enough energy left to feel embarrassed about it all.

Finally he laid me down on one of the beds, taking it upon himself to pour a glass of water with a straw and place it in my good hand. “Don’t think I won’t pour it down your throat.” he warned.

I took a tentative sip, glaring at Pollux the whole time. “You sound like dad…” I muttered.

He almost smirked in response, but he noticed one of the healers staring and that protective, worried look returned. “Got a problem, Garret?”

“Uh…No, nothing.” The boy replied, quickly.

“Alright then, work on your patient.”

I wanted to be mad at Pollux for dragging me here, but I was too shocked by everything. Sure, Pollux was respected, as one of the older kids at camp and for fighting in the Titan war, but he was normally so laid back. I’d never seen him mad at anyone before.

He sat with me the entire time Garret, the scrawny Apollo kid on shift, applied a new cast. So long as Pollux was in the chair next to me, I was sure no one would say anything about the incident. It was a comforting thought. While the new cast dried, Garret brought some multivitamins and a granola bar over, and Pollux stared me down until I ate them.

With some food in my stomach I felt worlds better, and Pollux seemed to finally relax a bit. He flipped through an old newspaper from Olympus while I read over his shoulder. For a brief moment it seemed like maybe I could pull myself out of this.

There was a small commotion outside before Garret came back looking sheepish. He stopped at the foot of my bed, obviously uncertain about what he was about to say. “Um…Theo is asking if he can talk to you.” the boy finally spat out.

After a long moment, I found a reply. “Tell Theo that he should find someone else to canoe with. It’s for the best.” I answered, before pulling the covers up and laying down again. Garret nodded silently, and took his leave.

Everything felt heavy again and I let myself drift back into my head. By some miracle I managed to fall asleep that night, but I was plagued by nightmares. Theo laughing until he couldn’t breathe, the fearful glares from other campers as I walked by while they chanted ‘monster’ over and over again. Then there was the big one…

_It was two years ago, when I was still living with my mother. She hadn’t gotten out of bed in two days, so I was sitting on my bedroom floor listening to music and eating some popcorn for dinner. I had begun wondering if I should return to camp at all. I knew she needed me when she got like this._

_Suddenly I could hear footsteps from the other room and perked up. “Mom? Are you up?” I called excitedly._

_“I’m up sweetie..” she called back, appearing in my doorway in wrinkled clothes with an empty bottle in her hand._

_I sunk down. “I thought we got rid of all the alcohol mom…you said you were feeling better without it…” I asked carefully._

_“It’s just one, Adara. I’m fine.” She argued._

_“You always say that!” I shouted back. “If you’re going to start with this again, I won’t go to camp! I’ll stay and take care of you.”_

_My mother’s eyes widened in panic. “No! You have to go Adara.”_

_“But you need me!”_

_“No! I need you to go! It’s the only time I can get some peace, Adara- don’t you get it?” she had began to cry. “I love you but when you’re here it’s like I can’t function.”_

_My heart broke. “What are you talking about, mom?” I asked, tears building up in my eyes._

_“You’re…you’re different…. You’re not like your father. Why do you think you don’t go to school like normal kids? You think I like homeschooling you? It’s because you’ll drive them all insane just like you have me!”_

_Now I was really crying. I was terrified of the look in my mother’s eyes. “I don’t mean to..” I whimpered. Without realizing it, the more scared I got, the more my powers came forward- like a defense mechanism._

_“I know you don’t, but you do.” She half sobbed half laughed._

_“I don’t want to go, mom.” I tried again, desperately._

_She laughed even harder. “You don’t want to go to camp?” she let the bottle slip out of her hand, smiling as it crashed to the ground. “You want to stay with mom, like a good little daughter?” she asked, bending down in front of me._

_“Why are you laughing!?” I screamed, trying to shuffle away from the woman, but she caught my ankle, gripping it so tight the skin by her fingers turned white._

_She laughed even harder. “I’m laughing because you’re a monster Adara! You came out wrong and you think I love you. It’s so funny it’s almost pathetic”_

_I tried to run, but faster than I could comprehend she was on top of me, her hands wrung around my neck, a horrifying smile on her face. “You should die, Adara.” She smirked. “It would be fun.” I had no doubts she could actually kill me in this state, after all the maenads had once torn a man limb from limb with their bare hands under the effects of ritual madness._

_I was a goner._

_Tears filled my eyes as she squeezed harder and harder. I struggled and kicked for breath, but she didn’t even flinch when I hit her, just laughing hysterically while she choked the life out of her only daughter._

_There was only one thing I could think to do to save myself. Pray to my father and hope he cared enough to show up. ‘Dad! Help me!!’ I begged._

_Just as it seemed like all hope was lost, he appeared. With one stamp of his thyrsus the laugher stopped, and I could breathe again. When my vision finally cleared, I could see my mother starring at me with horror in her eyes. She had her hand clasped over her mouth and she was shaking like she couldn’t believe what she had just done._

_“A-Adara…I’m sorry…I---” she stammered, frozen in spot._

_My father’s voice cut through the room, and it was the first time I could remember him sounding like a god. His words were absolute, and they filled every corner of the room. “Adara will stay at camp for the foreseeable future.” he stated._

_I wanted to argue but the pain in my throat was too intense, I couldn’t even speak. My father picked up me up like I weighed nothing, and I blacked out as the room around us disappeared in a shimmering flash._

It was not fun to re-live.

I woke in in the infirmary, just like back then, and Mr. D was in the chair across from me. His expression was undecipherable. “Pollux has already lost one sibling.” he began. “I make it a point of pride for my own children not to befall the same miserable fates as other half bloods. So, what do you _need_ , Adara?”

I stared at him, my mind producing the answer almost immediately. What I needed more than any medicine or time. “I want to see my mom.”

Mr. D nodded slowly, like he had been expecting this answer. “Okay.”


	8. Argus and I Go on a Road Trip

There was no traffic on the roads as Argus dutifully drove the all-but-empty camp bus into the city. It was barely 4 in the morning, but my mother’s apartment was a good three-hour drive from camp, so we chugged on into the dark, with only the dim headlights and Argus’ many eyes guiding us. I’ll be honest and say that when I asked to visit my mother, I hadn’t expect Mr. D to agree let alone agree and immediately send me on my way with a backpack and a winter coat (yes, the coat was leopard print. No, I was not wearing it).

I slipped in and out of sleep during the long drive, listening to the soft sounds of ‘Apollo’s greatest hits’ playing on CD. It was actually kind of nice. Getting away from camp was giving me some perspective. There was a whole world outside Camp Half Blood, I wouldn’t be stuck there, an outcast, forever. There were options.

Quicker than expected, the time had passed, and Argus pulled onto the familiar street I once called home. I wasn’t surprised when he followed me off the bus, I knew this wasn’t just a free field trip- I was being babysat. But I didn’t care. Up a few flights of stairs was my _mom._

I nervously pulled the sleeve of my sweater down to cover my cast and had tied my hair back into a messy bun on the way here so I didn’t look like quite a mess. It was still early, so I was hesitant about waking my mother up with this surprise visit, but I nervously knocked on the door anyways.

The woman who answered could have fooled me into thinking I had stepped off that bus into 10 years ago. My mom looked well rested, she had a deep green blouse on with high waisted business pants, and her hair was shorter, neatly curled at chin height.

“Adara?” she gasped, eyes widening. “Adara!” We both surged forward at the same time, colliding into an unstable hug. As my face pressed against my mother’s chest, I could hear her breath hitch like she was crying, but when I looked up there was still a smile on her face.

“Mom, I missed you so much!” I choked out.

All those nights I laid awake wondering what it would be like to see my mother again. All the times I worried she might turn me away, or that I would be afraid of her. It was all wrong. I only felt relief as her warm hands rubbed gentle circles on my back before coming to hold either side of my face.

“You’ve grown so much.” She observed, a hint of sadness in her voice. But when she met my eyes she smiled again. “My beautiful, girl.” We pulled apart and there was an awkwardly long pause where I tried to find the words to explain myself. Catching on to my struggle, she opened the door wider and stepped aside. “Come sit down, you look so tired.”

I nodded, casting a glance back at Argus who seemed content to wait in the hallway. We made our way to the couch and I was amazed at all the changes in the apartment. There was new furniture, food in the cupboards, scented candles, and it was absolutely spotless. I was glad that my mother seemed to be doing well, but I couldn’t help the twinge of pain that came with realizing she was doing so well _without me_.

“This is a surprise.” My mom began, quickly cutting herself off to add, “—but a good one!” she seemed just as nervous as I was. “Are you okay?” she asked, looking me over and ghosting her hand over my cast. “You broke your first bone. And canoeing no less!” She mused; half sad half amused.

I looked at my cast. “Oh, yeah. I—” I caught myself, confused, “How do you know about that?”

She gave me a confused look in return. “Your father, of course.” She answered, like it was the most logical thing in the world. “He didn’t tell you that—” she paused, standing up and going to her room, returning with an old shoe box. She handed it to me, and I carefully opened the lid.

Inside were folded pieces of rich parchment paper, each with an ornate wax seal in the design of grape vines. I opened the one on top and read the neat cursive. _‘Adara fell out of a canoe and fractured her wrist. She is also terrible at pinochle. -D’_

I felt a range of emotions, opening up another and another.

_‘Adara and her half-brother seem to be getting along better. -D’_

_‘Adara has made herself indispensable to the Strawberry business. -D’_

_‘Adara has shown significant improvement in her archery, or so Chiron tells me. -D’_

And finally,

_‘Adara asked to see you again. I told her it wasn’t a good idea. Perhaps once you feel you are more settled since returning home. -D’_

I couldn’t get over the shock that Mr. D, who could barely force himself to attend dining hall, had taken the time to send my mother updates about me. If I didn’t know Mr. D any better I’d say it was actually sweet. Something in the last letter struck me though.

“What does this mean?” I asked, showing her the note. “Returning home from where?”

My mother shuffled in her seat, uneasy. “Yes, well… after…the incident…I realized that I needed help.” Her eyes darted between me and the ground, anxiously. “What happened wasn’t…it wasn’t all because of your powers, you need to know that. I was struggling for a long time before I ever had you.” She swallowed heavily. “But after I hurt you…I knew I needed to go someplace where I could work on myself.”

“You went to an institution?” I asked, shocked.

“It was more of a health facility. And it was _not_ your fault Adara. Don’t you dare feel guilty about it.” she told me, sternly. “It was really good for me. And when I got out, I knew I had to work hard to stay on the right path. I’ve got a good job, I’m sober.” She hesitated. “I wanted to become someone who could take care of you, like a mother should. Not the other way around.”

My eyes teared up as she pulled me into her embrace once more. “I’m so proud of you, mom.” I managed to choke out.

“Adara…I’m sorry for everything I put you through.” she whispered. “Can you ever forgive me for what I did to you?” she asked, her voice shaking.

I nodded desperately. No matter what happened, it had always been me and her. I could never shut my mother out of my life again like these past two years. “It’s okay, mom.” I cried. “I love you.”

“I love you Adara.” She replied earnestly, wiping the tears from my cheeks. After a moment a frown formed, and my mother rubbed her thumb against my cheek. “You seem sad, sweetie. What’s this visit all about?”

I played with the ends of my sweater sleeves anxiously. “I…just really wanted to see you.” I mumbled, avoiding my mother’s gaze.

“We don’t have to talk about it.” she suggested, sympathetically.

The words burned in the back of my throat, refusing to let me ignore them. “It’s just…things have been so weird lately.” I began. “There was…this boy.”

My mother raised an eyebrow, a small smirk growing on her face. “A boy?” she questioned.

“Not like that!” I protested. “He just sort of… _insisted_ on being my friend. He’s so annoying, but funny and nice. And things were going really great for a while. I finally felt like maybe I _belonged_ at camp. That I could be a normal kid—well, normal by demi-god standards at least.”

My mother nodded along. “What happened?”

Once the words started coming, they wouldn’t stop. I told her everything about the incident, and Theo’s siblings, feeling like the world was crashing down, all leading to travelling across the country with Mr. D’s permission to knock at her doorstep at 7am.

After waiting patiently for me to finish the miserable tale, my mother sighed giving me the kind of look only mothers could. “Adara…it sounds like this boy, Theo, doesn’t care about what happened. He wants to be your friend. Why won’t you let him?”

“Because!” I argued, defensively. “If I hurt him once, I could hurt him again. And next time Mr. D might not get there in time to make sure he doesn’t end up in a mental---” My words ran dry, I swallowed, glancing down at the ground guiltily.

“I hurt you,” she pointed out. “And I stayed away after because I was afraid of hurting you again. But doing that only left you more alone and hurt than before.” My mother put a hand over mine. “Do you really think staying away will make things any better?”

I thought for a few moments. “But…what about his siblings? They all hate me.”

My mother shrugged, flipping her curls behind her ear. “So what? Do you let Pollux decide who you’re friends with?”

“Well…no.” I admitted.

“The only opinions in this that matter are you and Theo’s. I think he’s made it pretty clear what he wants. What do _you_ want, Adara?” she asked.

The question burned in my mind. What _did_ I want? I wanted to go canoeing again (once my cast was off), I wanted to shoot arrows at water balloons full of paint, I wanted to play capture the flag, and laze around in the Strawberry fields. But most of all, I wanted to do all those things with Theo.

“I tell you what.” My mom piped up. “You keep thinking things over, and how about I call into work sick, and you, me, and that…er…large fellow, waiting outside, can go out to breakfast at that diner we used to go to.”

A wide smile grew on my face. “Fast food!” I cheered, desperately.

As my mother stood up, I found myself staring at the box of letters again. “Hey mom…has Mr. D been sending you these ever since I left?”

She nodded, while dialing the phone. “Even when I was in rehab. Every 2 weeks.”

After breakfast, Argus started glancing towards the bus anxiously. I knew I had to leave again, but that didn’t make it any easier. My mother and I hugged for a ridiculously long time outside the doors of the bus. “You can come home whenever you feel like it, you know.” She assured me.

I nodded. “I think I need to give camp another chance. But I’ll write to you!” I promised. I boarded the bus before things started to get misty eyed again, because I didn’t think I had any hydration left in me after all that crying.

I had plenty of time on the drive back to think everything over. I knew I owed Pollux a serious apology for all the trouble I’d caused him these past few days. The same went for Chiron. It was how to even begin to apologize to Theo that I was really struggling with.

By the time we got back, it was already late afternoon. Mr. D and Chiron were standing on the porch of the big house as we walked back into camp. Chiron had a welcoming smile on his face and Mr. D observed me out of the corner of his eye as he sipped on a diet coke.

“So. You get what you needed?” he asked, uninterested.

I nodded. “Yeah, I did. Thanks, _dad_.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the almost imperceptible way Mr. D choked on his drink at the title. I had never called him anything but Mr. D (or sometimes ‘annoying ass’- but only behind his back). But in this special case, I felt it was deserved.

Chiron cleared his throat, glancing behind me. “I believe someone wishes to speak with you.” he announced.

I turned around to see Theo, who seemed out of breath- like he had run all the way here from the north forest. “I thought you’d left for good.” he stated, hurt in his eyes.

I swallowed heavily. “Hey Theo…we have a lot to talk about…”


	9. Theo Looks Surprisingly Good in Leopard Print

So, I’ve only been to the theatre once. My mother having to raise me as a single parent didn’t leave much spare change for things like that, but we got free tickets to a community theatre play once because the guy my mom was dating at the time fancied himself quite the actor. Looking back, I guess my mother must have a thing for theatre guys, given who my dad is...but that’s besides the point. There was this moment after the house lights went down, but no one had come on stage in a good two minutes, and no one in the audience was sure if we were waiting for someone to come out, or if it was intermission and we could talk again, and everyone was uncertain and a little confused. That’s what it felt like right now sitting next to Theo by the canoe lake.

“Um..so…” I began, hoping that if I just started talking the words would catch up. No such luck.

Theo’s head was bowed forward, his messy hair covering his eyes, so I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. He took a heavy breath before looking at me. “You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to…Pretty much everyone has told me to just leave you alone…And I will, if that’s what you want, but I—” he rubbed at his arm nervously. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I went to visit my mom.” I explained. “It was actually really great. It was nice to finally move past everything that happened two years ago.” I swallowed heavily, glancing at Theo who was listening intently. “That’s what the incident in my file was…” I began, ready for him to know. “I lost control of my powers just like with you, and my mom accidentally hurt me. I spent two weeks in the infirmary barely able to speak or move my neck, and my mom checked herself into an institution. That’s why…that’s why I try to avoid getting close to other people. I don’t want a repeat of what happened.” I remembered Theo’s scared eyes and haunting laughter. “I’m sorry about what I did to you…”

Theo shook his head. “It was an accident. Besides, I was fine afterwards. I’m not afraid of you hurting me, Adara.” he promised, and then cast his gaze away. “I’m more afraid of you going back to being alone all the time.”

I felt a small flutter in my chest. “I’ve never really had a friend before you.” I explained. “So…I’m not sure how to make up after ignoring you and pushing you away.”

Theo looked up surprised. “You…still want to be friends?” he asked hopefully.

I nodded, smiling shyly. “I’m still not really sure why you want to be friends with me, but I’m glad for it. If you still want to...”

Theo’s eyes sparkled as he furrowed his brows. “You don’t need a reason to be friends with someone, Adara. But if you want to know why I first asked you to go canoeing, it’s because you deserved to have fun like everyone else. I’m going to sound kind of creepy here, but I’d sort of been watching you all summer. You take care of everybody, you help plan the camp activities, you spend your entire day making sure everyone can enjoy Camp Half Blood- but you don’t get to enjoy it at all. It wasn’t fair.”

I was at a loss for words.

“To be honest, I thought it would be a lot harder to get you to hang out with me. I was a little worried you might just refuse point blank. I was supposed to teach you how to have fun but then you turned it around on me and became the person I have the most fun hanging out with.” Theo continued, a smile beginning to break out on his face. “So as for making it up to me…promise to go canoeing with me sometime?” he asked.

I laughed, despite feeling like I might cry. “Yeah. So long as you look out for anymore spiders.” I agreed.

“You got it, Paddles.” He smirked.

“Oh shut up.” I shoved him playfully. ‘Oh!” I exclaimed, suddenly ruffling through the backpack Mr. D had give me. I was sure there had to be a pen in here somewhere. I finally found one, holding it up triumphantly before passing it to Theo. “You have to sign my cast.” I told him, determined. “Friends sign each other’s casts.”

He shook his head, amused. “That _is_ the rule.” He agreed, uncapping the pen and hunching over my arm once more. This time took longer than the last, and my curiosity grew as Theo finally capped the pen and sat back, a satisfied grin on his face.

I cast him a suspicious look before turning my arm to read. There was a small doodle of two stick figure people in a canoe, and beneath it said:

_‘Only BEST friends get to doodle on the cast. -Theo’_

My cheeks flushed a little from happiness. “You’re so lame.” I scoffed, trying to hide my smile.

“You’re lamer. Is that a leopard print jacket in your bag? _Woooow_ , Adara!” he teased, pulling it out and standing up to look at it.

I leapt up to try to grab it back, but Theo was taller than me and he held it above my head. “Give it back! This is SO embarrassing!” I whined.

Theo ducked around me and shoved his arms into the sleeves, modeling the thing. “ _Very_ Chic, does your dad have a matching one?” he asked.

“I hate you.” I pouted, giving up. Partly because Theo actually did look quite good in the jacket, and party because I was exhausted. It had been a long few days, and now that I had set things right with Theo, more than anything I just wanted to take a nap.

After Theo finally surrendered the jacket back to me, although it was done with a hint of sadness I’m sure, I promised that I would see him at dinner and headed back to the Dionysus cabin in the mean time to rest.

When I walked inside, Pollux was on his way out, and by the multiple swords he was carrying I assumed he was going to the forge to get them worked on by one of the Hephaestus kids. He stopped when he saw me, a flicker of relief crossing his eyes.

“You’re back.” he observed.

“Yeah.” I smiled, neither of us quite sure what else to say. “Forges?” I asked.

“Yeah.” he replied, glancing at the weapons.

“I’ll see you for dinner I guess, then.” I suggested.

Pollux’s expression warmed. “Sounds good to me.” He patted the top of my head as he walked by. “Get some rest, Sis.” He added.

I felt my chest warm. “Pollux, wait!” I called from the top of the steps. He turned around just in time to see me bolt down the stairs and wrap him in a hug. “I’m sorry…thank you for everything.” I mumbled as he patted my shoulder.

His small smirk and the look in his eyes told me I was forgiven for any trouble I might have caused him. I was glad to know that the two of us could continue being friends. Afterall, joining forces was the only way we had a chance at beating Mr. D in pinochle.

When the dinner horn rang out across camp, a wave of new anxiety bubbled up in my chest. I could only imagine all the rumours that had been flying around. Camp gossip was truly the worst. I stuck close to Pollux as we entered the dining hall, knowing that even if they glared or whispered no one would directly say anything to me with him and Mr. D present.

We scraped part of our food into the fire, and I silently thanked Mr. D for letting me go see my mother. I was starting to feel like maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as I was imagining in my head, but as we walked by the Apollo table I heard the girl from the Infirmary, Devon, scoff loudly and cast me a nasty look. Theo looked miserable sitting with them, and I wished I could have shot him a supportive smile but instead I kept my head down and quickly made it to the safety of our table.

After a moment, the dining hall fell silent as Theo stood up in a dramatic flurry. His half-siblings watched in mild shock as he carried his plate and walked determinedly up to the Dionysus table. I must have looked incredibly dumb, staring wide eyed, fork hanging out my mouth, as he turned to my father and said,

“I’m finding it difficult at the moment to sit with my siblings. Permission to join your table for today, Mr. D, sir?” he asked politely.

Mr. D raised an eyebrow, taking a slow sip of his diet coke. “I don’t get involved in family drama between children, _Ted_. But, I’ll make an exception just this once- be it on your head if Sun-boy gets offended.” He answered, to my surprise.

Theo nodded and squished in, between me and Pollux. “Thank you, sir.” he smirked, turning to wink at me before stuffing some food in his face.

“You’re an idiot.” I muttered under my breath to him.

“You love it, Paddles.”


	10. My First Campfire Sing-Along

Over the next three weeks, most of camp seemed to forget about the incident. It wasn’t the hot gossip anymore, especially after scrawny little Garret, (you remember him from the Infirmary?) got caught with Alisha from the Demeter cabin when he was supposedly seeing some Ares kid. And for the most part, with the drama around me dying down, Theo’s half-siblings and him made peace about how they acted before. Pretty much everyone but Devon, who had taken personal offense to Theo ditching the Apollo table that night, stopped whispering and glaring behind my back.

I made sure to write to my mother to let her know how things had turned out. She seemed very pleased, and insisted that I must send a picture of me and Theo next time I got the chance. Even though I read her request alone in my cabin, I felt an embarrassed blush crawl across my cheeks.

The weather was sunny with a chill in the air, as I sat in the strawberry fields trying to teach Theo how to play pinochle. He was a pout and a sore loser, but I was enjoying actually winning for once when Chiron wandered over, usual clipboard in hand. “Apologies for interrupting your game my dear, but I was wondering if you’d given any thought to the winter field trip?” he asked.

I gnawed my lip in thought. “Is it too cliché to say Olympus?” I asked.

Chiron shook his head. “Not at all, there are plenty of new campers who have never seen it.” he smiled. “Can I count on you to handle the attendance slips?”

I nodded, glad to be of help. “I’ll get started on them tonight.”

“Actually—” Theo cut me off, smiling. “Adara has plans tonight. But she’ll start those tomorrow.” he told Chiron.

I looked at the boy confused. “Plans? What plans?” I wasn’t aware of anything special going on, and I knew because I was the one that usually posted the event schedule once Chiron had approved it.

Theo merely shrugged and smiled even wider, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Guess you’ll have to wait and find out.” he told me.

Try as I might, I could not get Theo to break. He refused to tell me what was happening. It was frustrating but a little exciting. I spent the rest of the day wondering what he might have planned. By the time dinner came I was practically vibrating with anticipation. I shoveled my food down like it would make the minutes go by quicker.

“Geez Adara, are you in a race or something?” Pollux asked. I ignored him and noticed Theo smirking from across the pavilion, I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

 _Finally_ people started clearing out and heading off for the night. Theo leisurely made his way over. “Come on let’s head down to the fire.” he suggested.

I raised an eyebrow. “There’s a sing along tonight.” I reminded him. We’d have to find something else to do.

Theo pushed me towards the path, insistently. “I know there is, that’s why we’re going there, Paddles.” he explained.

My eyes widened. We had been practicing a little each day in controlling my powers. Since he’d felt the effects of ritual madness before and was fine, Mr. D had volunteered him as a willing test subject. I’d been more than a little hesitant at first, and there had been more than one minor breakdown about hurting him again. But last time we practiced I had been able to keep that cloud of insanity to myself. But focusing in a controlled environment with a safety net in the form of a god standing right there was _way_ different than keeping my chill at a freaking sing-along.

Theo sensed my anxiety and stopped walking, looking me in the eyes. “Hey, if you stress out, you’ll just panic more and feel not in control. You are _in_ control, ok? We can leave if you want, but give it a try, _please?_ ” he begged.

Swallowing heavy I nodded. Theo’s shining, confident smile calmed my nerves a bit, and we continued on our way.

There were a few brief looks when we showed up, but far less than I would have imagined. When I tried to sneak to the back somewhere and take a seat quietly, Theo held me in place by my shoulders in front of the crowd.

“Hey everybody!” he called. “This is Adara’s very first camp fire sing along!” he announced, happily. “She plans all these fun things for us, and tomorrow she’s ganna be going through all your boring attendance slips for the winter field trip so let’s keep it fun but lowkey tonight so she can enjoy this? Sound good?”

I swore that if Theo wasn’t holding me, I would have flopped to the ground in a puddle of embarrassment and shame. To my surprise there was a soft chorus of ‘sure’-s and ‘sounds good’-s, and even one quiet ‘thanks’.

Theo and I finally took our seats, on the ground near the front of the fire. I nervously watched as one of the older Apollo kids, who had been pretty friendly since the start, pulled out an acoustic guitar. He began to softly strum, and it took me until he started to sing to recognize the song.

_Heading down south to the land of the pines  
I'm thumbing my way into North Caroline  
Staring up the road and pray to God I see headlights  
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours  
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers  
And I'm a-hopin' for Raleigh, I can see my baby tonight_

When it got to the chorus, everyone joined in with a soft accompaniment of:

_So rock me mama like a wagon wheel  
Rock me mama any way you feel  
Hey, mama rock me  
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain  
Rock me mama like a south bound train  
Hey, mama rock me.._

I shyly swayed along with everyone else, but I didn’t dare sing. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Theo had an amazing voice- it was pretty much a guarantee with Apollo kids. He caught my gaze and elbowed me softly to join next time the chorus came around. Voice barely above a whisper I gave it a try, but I quickly found I was content to just listen and sway.

After a few moments, I grew nervous because I couldn’t tell if everyone was just starting to get into the music or if I was having some affect on the mood. Theo tucked my fidgeting hand under his and flashed me a smile that let me know everything was okay. He’d felt the effects of ritual madness before, so he would’ve let me know if I was letting it slip.

After a few more songs I was exhausted from focusing so hard while also trying to enjoy myself. My eyelids grew heavy and I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to last. Without me even needing to ask, Theo stretched and stood up, sensing it was time to call it a night. I wondered how he was able to do that so easily.

He walked me all the way to the cabin steps and I unwittingly found myself trying to wipe away some bubbling tears without being noticed.

“What’s wrong?” Theo asked, worried. No doubt he was afraid he’d pushed me too far outside my comfort level.

I shook my head, letting out a soft chuckle. “I just had a really good time.” I explained, feeling silly and trying to hide my face.

Theo let out a relieved breath, a smile on his face. “I did too.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, not letting me hide my teary face. For a moment everything seemed to go quiet, and I couldn’t look away from Theo’s face. His brows furrowed just slightly like he was considering something. When he spoke it was barely a whisper. “Hey Adara, do you think—”

“Time to head back to your own cabin, _Ted.”_ Mr. D’s cool voice interrupted as he materialized out of nowhere. Theo and I all but leapt away from each other.

“It’s _Theo_ , sir.” He corrected the man.

“Whatever, sun-spawn.” Mr. D replied, barely listening. “Just got word from Olympus, the field trip request was approved. I want every single camper’s attendance status by dinner tomorrow.” he stated, looking at me.

“Uh, yeah. Yep. I can do that.” I agreed, still a little thrown.

“What are you still doing here, Ted?” Mr. D asked. “Shoo.”

I cast Theo a glance that let him know he should probably go, and he scurried off, probably worried about being turned into a pinecone or something.

After Theo had left, I wondered why Mr. D had come all the way here in person to tell me the field trip had been approved, especially since Chiron had basically already told me to start working on the slips.

“Your half-brother and you will be leaving Olympus separately on the field trip.” Mr. D stated, after a moment.

I scratched the back of my neck, confused. “Okay…um, why?”

Mr. D rolled his eyes, like having this conversation at all pained him. “Ariadne insists on a… ‘family dinner’” he explained, clear disdain at the notion of it.

“Okay?” I agreed, but it came out sounding more like a question. I was surprised to say the least. I didn’t even think Pollux had formally met our father’s wife. It didn’t really seem like something you do: introduce your wife to the children you had with other women. But I supposed the rules of etiquette were a little different for gods and their demi-god children.

“Tell your brother.” Mr. D added before disappearing.

I let out a heavy breath, heading inside to flop onto my bed. Today had been full of surprises.


	11. We Both Get a Gift from the Sun God

“You can do this, Adara.” Theo encouraged, handing me a paddle.

“She can’t and she shouldn’t.” Lina piped up, her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.

“Don’t listen to her.”

Lina scoffed even louder. “Oh sure, ignore me why don’t you. You weren’t the one she practically kicked in the face last time when she was drowning! You demi-gods have no respect for us naiads!” she complained.

“I’m sorry about kicking you, Lina.” I apologized. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

It was early November, so despite the water looking especially chilly, this would be the last chance to go canoeing for the season. My cast wasn’t off yet, but I refused to have to wait until next summer to redeem myself. Theo had agreed to take over most of the rowing, so I didn’t hurt myself again so close to being free of the annoying thing- he was sweet like that.

My cast was wrapped to the heavens in plastic, I was wearing a puffy life jacket (against my will I might add), and the canoe was idling in the water ready to go. The only thing left was to actually get in.

“I checked for spiders, Adara. I _promise_ there are none!” Theo assured me for about the fifth time. I was wary none the less, but I stepped one foot into the canoe carefully anyways.

“I hope the biggest spider you’ve ever seen crawls on your face.” Lina harrumphed, disappearing into the water, which rippled in her wake.

“I’m going to have to make it up to her somehow.” I observed, cautiously bringing my other leg into the canoe, using the sides to steady myself.

Theo chuckled. “You know Liminades, they’re always bad tempered.”

I cast Theo a glare. “Don’t say things like that! You know sound travels across water. You’re going to get us soaked and the water’s freezing cold.” I scolded.

He simply smirked and got in the canoe behind me after pushing us off. “Two friendss, canoeing on a laaake…The mystery of the missing paddle continuesss, and Lina hates our faces!” he hummed as he paddled rhythmically.

“She hates _your_ face. She only mildly dislikes mine.” I corrected him, shaking my head. We continued to paddle pretty far out into the lake until we reached the centre. We were surrounded by yellow and orange coloured trees, their leaves falling like a golden mist from the gods.

“It’s so pretty.” I mused, resting my paddle against my lap while I took in the sight. I turned to look back at Theo who was smiling widely, his blue eyes shining in the autumn light.

“I told you that you’d have fun canoeing with me.” he teased.

“Yeah whatever, _Ted_.” I teased back.

He gasped, clutching his hand over his chest in offense. “You become more like your dad every day, I can’t believe this.”

As we floated on the lake, easily chatting and laughing, I couldn’t help but think about how surprisingly easy it all was. Not just being friends with Theo, but opening up to everybody. What I thought would be Pandora’s box turned out to be nothing of the sort. I realized that I had been so afraid of people hating what they’d find if they got to know me, that I hadn’t realized how many people around me already seemed to understand me. How many people were ready to let me in if I would just take that first step.

I was glad that Theo, as annoying and pushy and lame as he was, had dragged me into the real world despite my best efforts to stay away.

We make it back to the shore without incident, Theo offering a high five in victory. By the time we finished putting all the equipment away, it was almost dinner and the sky had grown dark. I looked up at all the stars in wonderment.

“Are you excited for the field trip tomorrow?” I asked. “Olympus must be beautiful.”

Theo stared up at the sky as well. “I might actually meet my father tomorrow.” he mused, quietly.

I had realized the more we got to know each other, and especially since the field trip had been announced, that Theo had never met his godly parent. He had been claimed of course, but, as with many of the kids here at Camp, they’d never actually spoken to their parent. Sure they might get a dream message from them here or there, if it was something important, but that wasn’t the same. It made me realize that, despite how rude or frustrating Mr. D could be, I was actually pretty lucky to be able to spend so much time with him. By demi-god standards, Mr. D was probably the most involved godly parent of them all—although one could argue he was forced into it by his position at camp…

None the less, I took Theo’s hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. “I’m sure everything will be great.” I told him, smiling.

Theo smiled back, nodding for us to head back for dinner. “Come on, Paddles. You’ve got a big day tomorrow too…” he smirked. “You get to meet your step-mommy!”

“Shut UP!” I huffed, shoving him lightly.

“Oh you want to start a fight, Adara?” he asked, a glint in his eye. It had become a favourite past time of Theo’s to win fights by tossing me over his shoulder like a rag doll and declaring victory.

“Oh gods…” I groaned, knowing that look. “It’s too late for this kind of— YOU GOTTA CATCH ME FIRST!” I screamed darting off into the dark towards the dining pavilion, with Theo hot on my heels.

You would think a field trip of demi-gods to see Olympus would be a pretty big deal, but honestly it was a lot like a normal field trip. A lot of cranky campers, piling three to a seat in a bus, and chatting obnoxiously loud until the field trip leader (in this case, Mr. D) demanded that everybody shut up before he turns them into a pinecone. Okay, so I guess that last part was a little different from mortal trips.

I was squished between Pollux and Theo, near the front of Argus’ bus. That was another thing that mortal and demi-god trips had in common- the rowdy kids sat at the back. I don’t know why, it’s probably just a Rule of the Universe thing. Either way, despite my progress it was better safe than sorry, so I stuck to the quieter front of the bus.

“I can’t believe you’re wearing the jacket.” Theo chuckled, staring at me in amusement. I had a black blouse and jeans on, with the leopard print jacket I’d gotten from Mr. D on top.

“Shut up.” I hissed back. “It’s cold in the city, that’s all.” I argued.

Pollux, who had previously been reading his book and minding his own business chimed in. “She’s trying to impress Ariadne…” he said, like the traitor he was.

“Aw, Adara is that true?” Theo asked, squishing my cheek between his fingers. “That’s so cute.”

I slapped his hand away and cast both boys a dirty look. “Okay this right here? You two teaming up on me- that’s not allowed!” I elbowed Pollux in the ribs, causing him to lose his page. “Besides, you’re supposed to be on _my side_.”

Pollux simply shrugged and went back to reading. I crossed my arms angrily and turned my nose up at the both of them, but Theo persisted.

“Aww come on Adara, I’m just teasing.” he pouted. “Besides, you can’t be mad at me today of all days.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah, what’s so special about—”

Before I could finish asking my question, the bus came to an abrupt stop and Mr. D stood up. “Exit the bus and head inside. Behave like you aren’t a bunch of yapping idiots for once, please and thank you. Should you feel the need to touch anything, remember the last winter field trip to Olympus almost ended in a war between the gods, so maybe keep your grubby little half-blood hands _off._ ” he announced.

Everyone stared in stunned silence, almost afraid to move. Chiron cleared his throat. “And _do_ enjoy yourselves.” he added, with a smile, gesturing for us to de-bus.

I was already impressed, and we were only in the elevator. I couldn’t even describe to you what Olympus was like. The entire thing had an otherworldly glow. All clouds and gold and elegant columns. It was _godly_ to say the least.

We were escorted through some gardens, where we stopped and watched a performance from the muses. The muses were terrible flirts though, and I could only laugh as Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, fawned over the Apollo kids. I suppose it made sense given who their Father was.

As we left the gardens, I glanced back to see both Melpomene and Erato whispering and smirking in my direction. “What’s wrong?” Theo asked, following my gaze. I shook my head, pointedly ignoring them.

“It’s nothing.”

We finally made it to the part of the tour everyone had been waiting for: The Throne Room of Olympus. I looked at my father’s throne, wrapped in vines, and it was only then I noticed that I hadn’t seen Mr. D with us the whole time. I realized with an embarrassed blush that he was probably reuniting with Ariadne. I tried not to think about what dinner later would be like…

My thoughts were interrupted by the room literally lighting up as a toned man with golden hair entered. “Welcome!!” he greeted, voice booming. Beside me, Theo tensed and I realized quickly that this was Apollo, the god of healing, archery, music, driver of the chariot of the sun, and (oh yeah,) Theo’s estranged father.

The rest of the Apollo kids flocked to him like he was, well, _a god_. But Theo stayed frozen in place. I gently tugged on his sleeve to try to get his attention, but he just stared down at his shoes nervously. I had never seen Theo like this before, it worried me. I didn’t want him to miss out on meeting his dad, but I also wasn’t going to push him if he wasn’t ready.

“You have his eyes.” I whispered to Theo, quietly. He let out a barely audible ‘hmm’.

“Woah, kids, chill out. There’s enough of me to go around. How about I treat you all to a special lyre performance, huh?” he asked, smiling brightly (like literally, even his teeth seemed to vaguely glow). “Hold up- we’re missing one.” Apollo seemed to be going over it in his head. “Where’s the Birthday boy?” he asked.

Beside me, Theo gulped loudly.

“Birthday boy?” I questioned. “It’s your birthday?” I probably should have kept my mouth shut because Apollo’s eyes narrowed in on us. He had the same mischievous smirk in his eye which Theo got, and in an instant the god was before us.

“17 right?” he asked, staring at Theo.

“Um…yeah, 17.” He nodded, finally bringing himself to look at his dad.

“Practically a man!” Apollo cheered, patting Theo on the shoulder. I thought he might pass out, so I gripped his arm just in case. Another mistake.

“Oh, and who is this?” Apollo asked, his piercing gaze shifting to me. “You’re a pretty one,” he smiled and winked. “But look at you stuck in a cast, poor thing. Let me fix that for you.”

Before I could even respond, the shining god had taken my left arm into his hands. A warm glow enveloped my wrist and next thing I knew the cast was gone and my fractured wrist was completely healed. I knew better than to snub a gift from a god.

“Thank you, lord Apollo.” I said, politely.

He raised my hand to his lips and placed a chaste kiss. “My pleasure. It’s not every day you meet a daughter of insanity.” he smirked.

I pulled my hand back quickly, and Theo seemed to return to his body, placing himself between his father and me. “That’s not what she is.” he defended me.

Apollo’s bright eyes flickered between the two of us, a smirk on his face. “Oh my, I’m sure Dionysus is going to be thrilled about this.” he chuckled.

“What?” Theo questioned.

“Don’t worry about it.” Apollo laughed, waving his hand and producing a shimmering bow from out of no where. “Here son, a gift on this, your birthday.” He handed it to Theo, who accepted it with wide eyes.

“Uh, thank you, um, Apollo, sir.” He replied.

The golden god winked before returning to lounge on his throne and strum his lyre, while the other campers gathered to watch.

Theo and I remained where we were. “So that was your dad.” I commented.

Theo nodded, looking over the beautiful bow. “That was my dad.” he agreed, but there were the hints of a smile on his face.


	12. The Fireworks Beach Under Moonlight

The rest of the field trip went without incident. When it came time to file back into the elevator and head back to Camp, Pollux and I hung back. I felt bad leaving Theo on his own, but he seemed like he’d be fine in the company of his siblings. They all crowded around him admiring his gift from Apollo with veiled jealously.

Mr. D seemed to appear out of no where (a common thing with gods). He glanced at my arm and rolled his eyes. “I see you met sun-boy.” he observed, with little interest. “Well come on then, don’t keep her waiting.” he snapped, and we followed him to a small dining room that appeared to be made entirely out of woven vines. Strawberries, grapes, and other fruits hung from every corner, and in the middle was a beautiful, natural wood table and seats.

“Sit.” Mr. D told us, before disappearing out the room.

I hung my jacket on the back of the chair before sitting and casting a nervous look towards Pollux. How he seemed so calm and almost bored was beyond me, but I supposed it was a trait he got from our father.

After what felt like a long moment, Mr. D re-entered, no longer in his camp attire of a leopard shirt and board shorts, but in elegant Greek robes with depictions of grapes around the sleeves. More surprising than that was the beautiful woman on his arm. She had long wavy hair and striking green eyes, which pierced into me.

“Oh!! Dio, you didn’t tell me how beautiful she was!” Ariadne exclaimed, letting go of Mr. D’s arm to move towards me. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I froze dumbly as the goddess laid her hands against my cheeks and turned my face to either side. “Aww, she’s just a doll. Why couldn’t you have given _me_ a sweet little daughter to spoil?” she asked, pouting at Mr. D.

With an exasperated sigh, Mr. D waved his hand towards the woman. “Children, this is Ariadne, princess of Crete and goddess of the labyrinth. Ariadne—” he waved towards us, half-heartedly. “—children.”

Ariadne threw him a look and Mr. D rolled his eyes before correcting himself. “The eldest, Pollux, and his younger half-sister Adara.” he introduced us, petulantly.

“It’s um, nice to meet you Lady Ariadne.” I spoke, although it was hard since her hands were still on my cheeks.

I couldn’t get over how much her eyes looked like mine. Pollux’s words about Mr. D only seeking out mortal women because he missed Ariadne seemed to suddenly hold more truth the longer I looked at her. She looked strikingly like my mother.

Pollux bowed his head briefly. “Lady Ariadne.” he said.

She seemed absolutely delighted. “I hope my grouchy husband treats you well there at camp.” Ariadne commented, finally letting go of my face and taking a seat. Mr. D tucked in her chair for her before sitting down and materializing a diet coke.

“He’s um…” I struggled to find the words. “He’s good at motivating the campers.” I finally finished. Technically threatening and punishing campers who misbehaved motivated the others to follow the rules.

Ariadne laughed. “You’re a funny one, darling Adara. I simply adore you.”

Pollux and I exchanged a look, and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. How in the hades did such a sweet, energetic woman like her fall for Mr. D? Unfortunately, Mr. D seemed to read our minds and he stamped his thyrsus, bringing forth the food.

“Eat and mind your business, children.” He warned.

We ate.

Throughout dinner Ariadne regaled us tales of her time on Crete and how Mr. D had rescued her from Naxos after Theseus abandoned her. She laughed with dark delight after observing that Theseus’ tragic end was befitting of his misdeeds, and suddenly I understood that maybe Ariadne was more suited to Mr. D’s bitter temperament than I had previously thought.

Towards the end of the meal, Ariadne suddenly, with no segue, asked, “Pollux dear, is your mother still alive?”

Pollux shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “She is. We don’t talk much though.”

This was new information to me.

“Aw, poor dear. If you ever need anything you shall pray to me and not your grouchy Father.” she informed him. “And you, Adara dear?”

I should have seen the question coming but it still caught me by surprise. “Oh, um. Yes, she’s alive. We just got back into contact.” I told her.

The goddess frowned. “Oh, pity. I was hoping I could steal you to be my own. I’ve always wanted a darling daughter. To teach her how to weave, buy her clothes, teach her the kind of awful men to avoid.”

I blinked in surprise, unintentionally glancing to Mr. D for help. I really didn’t want to offend the woman. Mr. D just sipped his diet coke silently. I turned back to Ariadne, managing an uncertain smile. “Uh, well, you could still teach me things if you wanted.” I suggested. “You are my step-mother in a way, I suppose.”

Ariadne’s eyes lit up, she was by my side in an instant, hugging me and pinching my cheek. “Wonderful! A daughter!” she cheered, and I swore I saw Mr. D almost smile as he watched his wife’s happy face.

By the time the meal was over, Ariadne had piled both Pollux and I with gifts. She gave Pollux books and weapons with Cretan design, various sea creatures, all around the handles. To me, Ariadne had braided golden string into my hair, materialized an elegant Greek robe on my body, and draped me in jewelry of shining bronze and sea shells.

“Remember Adara, _do not_ get onto a ship with a young man who has only _promised_ to marry you. It never ends well.” She informed me, seriously.

“What about a canoe?” Pollux asked, under his breath.

I shot him my best glare.

“The children should get back to camp now, Ariadne. It’s not good for demi-gods to spend too much time on Olympus.” Mr. D told his wife.

The excitable goddess cast her husband a forlorn look. “Aww, but that means you must go as well, Dio…” Pollux and I were luckily quick enough to look the other way as, I can assume, she kissed her husband fervently.

After they were done making my stomach turn, Ariadne gave Pollux and I each a pinch on the cheek and a smile. “Iris message me! I get so lonely without my Dio here.”

I tried not to cringe. “Uh, yep. Promise.”

Her green eyes shone with that same dark, smiling madness as before. “Make sure you don’t break your promise to a god, then dear. We do get quite offended at that.”

I nodded, a little nervous.

“Okay, move it along half bloods.” Mr. D called, his thyrsus appearing in his hands. “Close your eyes and try not to throw up.” he instructed. Ariadne stepped back and waved goodbye as Mr. D stamped his staff against the ground and the room disappeared in shimmering gold. We landed back at Camp Half Blood, outside the main house.

I was a little unstable on my feet at first, but Pollux caught my elbow. “Woah.” I muttered, as I tried to get my bearings.

“Head to bed, children. It’s long past curfew.” Mr. D stated, back in his regular clothes.

I looked around and realized it was indeed long past dark. I remembered time sometimes moved differently in Olympus, and that we must have been gone for hours longer than the other campers.

Pollux began to head to the cabin, I moved to follow him when I heard Mr. D call out to me. “Adara- make sure you do follow through on your promise. Ariadne is not someone you want to break a promise to. Remember what happened to Theseus.”

I nodded. “I will.” I assured him. And for some reason I also felt the need to add, “I like her. She suits you.”

Mr. D narrowed his eyes. “Go to bed.” he muttered, disappearing into the Big House.

I shook my head, chuckling quietly to myself. I was tired, and a bit anxious to take off all this heavy jewelry and un-do the fancy hair style Ariadne had given me, but there was something I felt I needed to do first.

Instead of heading to the Dionysus cabin, I quietly crept over to the Apollo cabin, peaking in the back window. I remembered Theo complaining of the draft from being next to it. He was asleep in his bed, messy hair sprawled out across the pillow. I gently tapped the window, hoping that I wouldn’t wake the whole cabin.

Eventually Theo shifted, his eyebrows furrowing as he woke up and looked around for the source of the noise. When he noticed me in the window his eyes widened. I silently waved for him to meet me outside, and snuck around to the front to wait.

Theo came out in his grey sweats and an oversized camp sweatshirt, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. “Adara? What’s wrong? Are you just getting back?” he asked, confused.

I held a finger up to my lips to tell him to be quiet, and led him by his hand down to the fireworks beach. We sat down, and Theo draped the blanket over my shoulders too, which I was grateful for since the Grecian dress Ariadne had given me was elegant but not very warm.

“To what do I owe this late-night kidnapping?” Theo asked in an amused tone now that we didn’t have to whisper anymore.

“Oh please, I hardly kidnapped you. You came willingly.” I shot back.

Theo shrugged. “And what is going on with your outfit?” he asked, looking me over. “You look like…” he struggled to find words, and I was sure he was trying to think of something insulting to say, but instead what he said was, “You look like a goddess.”

I blinked, part of me waiting for the lighting bolt the smite us both.

“Thanks…” I murmured, looking down to hide my embarrassed face. “Um, so… You didn’t tell me it was your birthday before?”

Theo shrugged. “I don’t really make a big deal out of it.” he explained.

I nodded, gnawing on my bottom lip. “I guess I owe you a present though. Can’t be outdone by the sun god.”

“Oh really?” Theo questioned, smirking.

“Shut up and look over there.” I pointed to a big pile of rocks to Theo’s left. He turned to look, and I leaned up, gently pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Theo’s eyes shone even in the dark (a trait from his Father I supposed). “Well then, who needs a golden bow?” he joked.

“Idiot.” I shook my head, shoving him slightly, but Theo didn’t move. He continued smiling at me, and suddenly I felt like we were probably sitting a little too close. Besides, it was late, and I knew that the longer we stayed out the more chance we had at getting caught.

I moved to stand up, but Theo caught me by the waist pulling me back down. “Promise to go canoeing with me every summer.” he demanded, suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know…Ariadne told me that I shouldn’t get into boats with men who aren’t my husband.” I joked, holding my hands up as if to say ‘sorry’. Without missing a beat Theo caught them in his hands.

“What about a boyfriend?” he asked.

My throat closed up and my eyes grew wide. I felt panicked because he didn’t sound like he was just teasing. He sounded serious.

“I…” I stammered, uncertain how to deal with this.

After a moment, Theo’s intense gaze softened, and he smiled dopily. “Don’t worry about it.” He gently placed a kiss on my hand, almost replacing his father’s. “I can wait.”

He wrapped the blanket tighter around us as I let myself get pulled against Theo’s chest. My body seemed to relax, and we watched the surf in content silence. For possibly the first time ever, I was glad I was a demi-god. I wouldn’t give up the family I had for anything. Mom, Pollux, Mr. D, Ariadne, and even Chiron. But most of all, I was glad for Theo. Maybe I needed a little time to catch up to him, but my heart felt warm and full, and I knew that one day I’d have the answer Theo wanted. Until then, I was happy just as things were right now. 

... _**The End ...**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment or a kudos if you liked it :) I might be down to do some kind of follow up one shot or series if there's interest.  
> -E


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